A Xenomorphs' Tale
by incurser
Summary: This is the story of a boy who was in a dark place and was... rescued by Xenomorphs. This story contains all the love, lies and hardship that he went through. feedback is always welcome but not being an asshole and if you spot a mistake, point t out t me and I'll fix it asap.
1. Chapter 1

There was some bold writing but because the last time i tried to upload this, it came out in code so I removed it.

This story will be a rp of me.

'This is speaking using telepathy'

"This is normal speech"

I wake up in a very dark, warm room feeling very dazed and confused. It all suddenly flooded back to me, I was in my room, just about to go asleep when I heard a noise coming from the door. I looked over but didn't see that anyone opened my door so I thought it was just someone walking past. I turned over to face the window and then I got a feeling that someone was watching me so I sat up in my bed and looked around but, again I didn't see anything so I just put it to my slightly jumpy nature. That was until I heard a hiss coming from over my head. I grabbed my phone and turned in the light feature and saw a sleek, black creature above my head, it crawled onto my bed and stood up straight. It was at least six foot, probably more. I can just about touch the ceiling when I'm on my bed but this creature would have been able to touch it fine off my bed.

When it stood up I got a better look at it, it had long, human like legs but with an extra joint, probably to help it climb. It had three toes on its feet, each with long,sharp talons at the end. Its hands were also human like but had an extra thumb. Its long, smooth head had no eyes or ears, it nothing on it but a mouth. While I was staring at its different body parts it opened its mouth and took out its inner mouth. By now I realised it was a Xenomorph, I knew it could kill me right there and then but strangely, it didn't. It closed both its mouths and just stood there. At a closer look I realised that this one was a drone. They bring back...hosts for their young. When I realised this I started to panic. I didn't want to have inside of those things inside of me, I would rather it kill me right now.

It grabbed me, putting one hand over my mouth and nose so I couldn't breath and held me there until I passed out. I woke up and here I am now, in the present about to have one of these things put inside of me so It could make its way out of me again. I struggle in an attempt to get free but one of those things hiss' at me and I stop, had it been in here the whole time? I don't know, these things are as sneaky as hell.

I saw something move in front of me, I looked over to see one of the many eggs, which I also hadn't noticed before open and a face-hugger crawling out of it. 'This is the end.' I'm thinking to myself. As it came over I start struggling, trying to prolong my life a few seconds longer. It crawl onto my face, as the name implies and darkness surrounds me. It must have some sort of drug that it gives you to keep you quiet because I feel my body going limp once again as unconsciousness grabbed hold of me.

I woke up in another part of the hive, I decide to call it that because they remind me of ants, the way they would work together to kill any threat to the hive and protect their Queen at any cost. I feel a bit dizzy and as soon as I have my wits I start feeling around my torso, nothing moving, apart from my steady heartbeat and my lungs going in and out. I soon fell asleep wondering what tomorrow would bring.

I wake up to something prodding me in my back, I turn around to find that it was another one of those things, I notice it trying to hand me something. I held out my arms and it put a piece of bread in my hand. 'Why is it feeding me?' I thought. I heard a faint whisper at the back of my head and looked up. "Was that you, did you just whisper to me?" I asked it quite confused. It has a look of surprise on its face, well, as much as a xenomorph can have. 'How did I know that it was surprised.' at thinking this i realise how hungry I am and I devour the bread. I look at the xeno still standing in front of me and saw a happy smile on its face. 'How did I know it was smiling?' I was very confused and all of a sudden I felt tired again. 'The bastard drugged me!' "no I didn't." I heard. "I just helped you get back to sleep, while also feeding you. There was nothing in that bread apart from sustenance." 'How was I hearing it talk?' that being my last thought as I fell asleep.

Voices float around in my head as I slept. "Who is he, it's never happened this fast before. I don't know, it's worrying me." "leave him be to sleep, he can hear you, you know." That last voice was different, clearer and softer, like a loving mother. "Sleep now child, rest."

The next few days went pretty much the same but I was allowed out of my room now. I felt more energised and could run longer distances than ever before, every day I could go for a bit longer. I also feel more aware of my surroundings, and I can see better now. I have sharper reflexes too. One night I have a dream, in this dream I was in my room, alone " hear the voice again. "Accept us child and be a part of our family." It said. "All you have do is say the word." I am tempted. "What about my family?" I replied. "We are your family now, come, be with us." "what about my mom and my brothers and sister, and all my relatives, they'll be heartbroken." "I'm so sorry to tell you this, but they already are, by now they would have deemed you dead." "why, how long have I been down here?" "My child-." "how long?" "twenty one human days." "THREE WEEKS!" If I wasn't asleep I would've slumped to the floor. I start crying. "My child, what's wrong?" "My family and friends think I'm dead, I'm scared and I don't know where I am." I said sobbing into my hands. "My child' but you're not dead, you're in your new home now and I am here for you when you're scared." she said in the most loving tone anyone can say anything in. I feel a warm, loving feeling, she was trying to comfort me. I lean into her embrace. "Will you become part of the family, little one?" I nodded, just starting to calm down. "Then I will warn you, the next part can be a bit… unpleasant." It all suddenly clicked. The voices, my eyesight, my agility, I was slowly becoming one of them. And in turn gaining the properties of their kind.

All of a sudden I woke up. 'Was this all a dream?' My eyes started to adjust to the light. I was still in the hive. 'I guess that answers that question.' There was a sudden, unbearable pain in my shins, feet and hands. Because I accepted mothers' request I was becoming one of them. My shins were the first to change, I could feel my bones shifting and then snapping under my flesh. Xenomorphs had an extra joint on their legs to help with running and climbing. Two of my toes were shrinking back into my feet on each foot, while the rest were growing long, sharp talons. My hands were growing what looked like an extra thumb and some of my fingers were joining together until the first joint in them. My flesh was slowly turning into a dark shade of black, not pure black but a shade like when you press down on a pencil really hard when writing. Then it stopped. I feel relieved at this but I know it isn't over, I brace myself for what was to come. Nothing could brace me for the pain I feel, my head feels like it is going to implode, I start screaming as my head was being pulled in two different directions at once, the screams slowly turn into a sort of screech as it continues, my jaw dislocates and my teeth feel like they are melting as they reshape themselves. After that torment is over my secondary mouth starts to form. I start gagging and eventually throw up as it forms in my throat, as it goes up my mouth it starts to feel more natural and I stop gagging all together. Suddenly my back is in excruciating pain as my tail starts to form, my spine discs move as my tail starts to develop, as it grows it looks just like a dogs tail if it was shaved, except black and really long. After it stops growing it is nearly 6 feet long, it starts to develop plates of armor and a deadly blade at the tip, looking at it I knew it could easily cut someones' head clean off. After it's done I'm exhausted and weak. My consciousness is taken away from me once more. After I wake up I'm dizzy and disoriented but quickly get my bearings. "Well done my child, I wasn't sure if you'd make it." Says mother. As I start calling her "What will I call you, mother doesn't seem appropriate?" I asked. "Mother will do when we are talking alone, but if we are in a group you must call me queen." "Okay, mother." "Sleep now, child and get your strength back." She said while soothing me to sleep.

How Did you like this chapter, it's really long sorry about that. I will try to shorten it. If you want more of this then say so because I'm happy to write it. See you in the next chapter. XD


	2. Chapter 2, Gifts

Since I originally uploaded this to Deviant Art, there's no Italic or Bold, so:

"This is human speech."

'This is telepathy and thinking. I will specify which.'

Also, this chapter is 4 pages long, so I'm not gonna change it. Besides, there's no humans for a while so it'll be fine.

One last thing. I only recently started writing these on my laptop aand before that i was using my phone so I didn't add any paragraphs.

I wake up and I realise that I had been moved again. Since I have no idea where I am, I start to wander around until I find someone. I try to speak with them but instead of words I just hiss at him, he smiles at me and walks off 'well that's a bit rude' I think to myself. I start wandering again. After about fifteen minutes of my random wandering, I realise I've gone in a circle, three times. "A bit lost, are we?" Says a mysterious voice. "Umm yeah, I've just been.. Reborn as I would call it." I reply. "Here, this should help." This person says to me while giving me a mental layout of the hive. "Thanks." I say to him. "What's your name? Mine's James." "First of all, that's not gonna cut it, you'll need a new name." "Why?" "Because people will give you shit for it." "Meh, fuck 'em." "Okay, well good luck. You'll need it." "why?" I ask getting curious. "Because this is where the praetorians rest, and they don't, and I mean don't, like outsiders." "Then why are you here?" "Because I'm a praetorian, shithead." When she said this I realised how much bigger she was than me. "Heads up, that jackass is coming." "Who?" I ask, a slight bit nervous "You'll know when you see him." At this she, I think it's a she proceeded to jump onto the roof and crawl away. I look over the map in my head and saw that the quickest way out of here was the way I came. I turn around and there was this huge beast of a Xenomorph in my face. "Well, well, well look what we have here, a newbie. Are you lost?" He asks. "Yeah, I think I know the way out now though." I try to walk out of here, past him but he grabs my arm and he pulls me to the ground. "Not yet you aren't. You see, I don't like newbies, I think they're weak. Unless they beat me of course, but that never happens." He then drove his fist into my stomach and again into my face. Was stunned when he did this. He grabbed my leg and threw me towards the wall.

I flip around in mid air and cling onto the wall with my arms and legs. "Well, at least it will be a bit of fun." He says to himself.

He walks over to me and I hiss at him but he keeps walking towards me.

He swings at me and I dodge to the side and slice at his stomach.

I hit my target, making him groan.

Suddenly he backhands me across the tunnel.

"You did well for a newbie, kid." He says walking over to me. I'm still on the floor hissing at him, crawling away from him in fear, or so he thinks. I struggle to hide the smirk on my face as he walks over to me. He's now towering above me when I lash out with my tail and catch his arm and chest. He shouts in pain as I get up and tackle him to the floor, then start to punch him in the face. After about fifteen punches I stop and get off him. "Have I impressed you now?" I ask with a smirk on my face. "Eh you did well, very well actually, how long since you were turned?" "A few days." I say. "Jesus, I'd hate to run into you when you're accustomed with this body." "Thanks, it was more instinct than anything, I think." "Huh, well you've impressed me. See you around kid." He say while turning to leave the way he came. "Very good, my child." Said mother in my mind. "I have a feeling that you helped me there." I said suspiciously. But not angrily. "You're observant, young one." She says with a chuckle. "Did you take over my body?" "No. I only pushed you in the right direction. But most of that was actually you." "Really?" "Yes, young one. Come to my chamber." "I don't know where that is mother." "you'll know, after all you have that map now." "how did you know?" "I have a connection with all of my children. After all, I need some way to communicate with all of them." "I will be there shortly." I look over the mental map again and went in the direction of the chamber. When I got there I realised how massive it was. It went hundreds of metres in every direction. "Welcome to my home,my child" she said to me, out loud. "Hello mot-my queen." I corrected myself at the last second. "Sit. I want to talk with you." I sit down where she points and wrap my tail around my legs. "Leave us."She motions for the rest to leave, which they do without question. "What was it you wanted to talk about my queen?" I asked, a bit curious. "What was it like, your life before here?" I was a bit stunned at this, I hadn't thought about my life since my rebirth. "Why did you want to talk about my life, I mean it wasn't great, but bad either, if you know what I mean." "I don't understand?" "Well, my life had its ups and downs but it wasn't horrible, I lost things that I cared deeply for but I gained new things too." "What kind of things, I should be able to read you like a book but, for some reason I can't. It seems clouded, foggy and full of regret." "Well I had recently lost my dog, her name was beauty. We had her for about five years, maybe even more, I can't remember anything but having her in my life. She was special to me, I never really clicked with my siblings. They are all adults but I am only thirteen, I mean we got along even if I didn't see them much. I had some cats along the way. One was named Titch and had to be put down, another was Eli, he was hit by a car, and we have now a cat named Milly, she is going to have kittens soon. So it helped soften the blow of losing my dog. I've also lost people close to me too, but I don't really want to go into much detail regarding that." "Now I see, you've been through a lot of pain young one. You must be very strong." "I don't really think I'm that strong, I've always relied on people to get me through." "Why that's what family's for." "I suppose. You would help me, wouldn't you?" "Of course my child, what kind of mother would I be if I didn't. In fact, I have a gift for you, but you'll have to earn it." "What is is?" I ask, getting excited. "You'll see when the time comes. But for now go and see if you can hunt something down, to try out all your new senses." "I will. Goodbye my queen." "Goodbye, my child." I start to head towards the exit of the chamber and as I reach it someone says to me "well, you just became a mom's pet." I look around and see the Xeno from earlier, the one who warned me about that jackass. "I'm surprised you're able to hold your own against him." She hissed slightly as she said him. "I didn't." "Really? It looked like you did." "No I beat the shit into him." I reply with a smirk. "What's your name by the way, you didn't tell me earlier?" "It's Dauntless. It means courage." "Ah. That's a nice name, mine's very plain." "It sure is, but you're sticking with it, I can respect that." "Thanks." I said with a smile. "I'm on my way to hunt. You wanna come too?" Dauntless asks me. "Sure. I was on my way to do that just now." We start to head towards the exit of the Hive. We get there just as it starts to turn to night. "Ready to take this new body for a spin?" Dauntless asks. "I could do with a midnight snack." I reply. Dauntless then sped off into the woods outside the entrance. I start at walking pace and slowly bring myself up to a sprint. I get onto all fours and speed up even more. I sniff the air and can smell all of the aromas around me. One stands out to me than any other. It smells like a deer. I speed off in that direction. Slowly building up speed as I go. I see Dauntless running ahead of me and as I catch up to her she says. "I wasn't sure if you'd be able to keep up." "Me neither." I say this then suddenly trip on something. But I didn't trip, instead I felt a horrible pain through my leg. I scream in pain, causing Dauntless to stop. "What? What happened." She asks. "Somethings on my leg" I say accompanied by another scream. I look down to see a bear trap clung onto my ankle. I try to pull it off but I can't. "Give me a hand with this." I say to Dauntless. She comes over and says. "Why hasn't it melted yet?" I look at it again and see the faint letters: Y.W. Dauntless pulls with me but it doesn't budge. Then I have an idea. "I've thought of something, but I don't think you'll like it." "What?" She asks. "Instead of pulling it you need push it, through my bone. "What! Are you crazy." She screams in my head. "If we can get back I might be able to glue my foot back on with some of the stuff on the walls. It's either that or I bleed to death." "Ok. I'll do it" she says "on three. One… Two." I take a deep breath. "Three." We push at the same time, causing agonising pain to go through my foot. There's a horrifying crunch and the pain gets ten times more extreme. I try to move my leg to see if it worked. And sure enough it did. "We need to get home, now. I don't have long" I try to stand up and hop but it doesn't work and I stumble. Dauntless catches me and we head back to the hive. We get there not a moment too soon. We go in the entrance a while until we're out of sight and then Dauntless sets me down and secretes the substance that is on the walls in her mouth. "You got my foot? Huh, I never thought I'd say that." This earned a giggle from Dauntless. "At least you're still in the mood to joke." She puts my foot in line with my leg and covers my leg in the substance that is on the walls. Darkness surrounds me as I black out from the blood loss. I wake up in a chamber I don't recognise. I try to sit up but I can't move my legs. I look down to find my legs covered with the stuff on the walls. "Easy now, you've been out of it for a while now. Three days now." "Who's that. Is it that jackass who I beat the shit into." i'm still dizzy as I say this. "Says the guy who is stuck to the floor." "I'll take that as a yes. What are you doing here." "I came to check on you. To be honest I'm surprised you made it, you lost a lot of blood." "Well I'm glad you think so. Why do you care about me anyways, I thought you hated newbies." "Because you earned my trust and respect." "Oh. How're you feeling by the way, after that beating I gave you." "I'm fine, besides we heal quickly. But you might be out of action for a while." "Yeah. Hey does Weyland Yutani mean anything to you?" "No. Doesn't ring a bell" He said. Dauntless walked in just before I said this and as she heard this she rushes over to us and asks. "Where did you hear that?!" "I didn't hear it, it was on the bear trap." "Wha- how did they find me." She stuttered and I don't think she meant to say it out loud. "We need to tell the Queen, come on." "Hey wait, he's in no position to move." As he said this I was already undoing my cocoon-like splint. "Actually. My leg feels fine." I say already standing up. The other two look at me in disbelief. "What?" I ask, confused. "You shouldn't be able to stand." They both said in unison. "Don't our kind have speeded healing?" "Yeah. But not this fast." "Huh, well maybe I'm different." "Right. Let's just go." Replied the guy I had beat up.

We walked to the Queens chamber just as she was finished eating. "My apologies my Queen, we didn't know that you were feeding." "It's quite alright, I'm done anyways. Now I guess you had something important to tell me?" "Well. James and I went to go hunt when James stumbled upon a bear trap. Now it would've been fine it actually melted away at his blood but… It didn't and we had to, well push instead of pull. Anyways James saw the words Weiland Yutani on it." she shuddered as she said the words. "My Queen they know we're here, they know I'm here." The queen suddenly looked at us with an intense passion. "Everyone leave, except you two." She points to me and Dauntless. Everyone else leaves. Even the drones at the back of the room, we didn't notice them until they scurried past. "Please tell me there wasn't a trail back here? Please tell me you covered it up?" "Yes, I went back and covered up the blood." Dauntless replies. "Good, that should give us enough time to escape." "Wait wait wait, hold up. What the hell is going on? I ask. "What is Weyland Yutani? And what's this about escaping?" I ask, worried and confused. "There's no time. We must start to make preparations." As she said this a warrior barges in. "What is the meaning of this!" Asks the now furious Queen. "My Queen, there are humans in the hive. They're capturing our brothers and sisters." I go to help the others but the Queen speaks up. "Wait. James, I need you to get Dauntless out of here and as far away as you can, I'll explain later, there isn't time." "My Queen, mother I'm not leaving you." "Go!" She screams. I see that there is no point in arguing and grab Dauntless' hand and run.


	3. Chapter 3 Truth

"This is people speaking"

'this is telepathic speech'

We ran. We ran for nearly two days, only taking short breaks. After the second day, Dauntless stops me and says. 'You shouldn't have said what you said back there.' '.What do you mean?' 'You shouldn't have said mother.' '.Why not.' I reply, a bit confused and annoyed that we stopped running. .Only me and a few others call her that.' ' And why is that?' 'I don't want to tell, it hurts to think about.' 'Well, maybe if you tell me it won't hurt as much.' I say, pushing gently to get her to tell. She sighs. 'The reason I am afraid of Weyland Yutani is because I was born there. It's a place of nightmares, they cut and tore off my skin, stabbed me with needles, caged me and beat me when I misbehaved.' 'Hang on, start from the start.' 'I was born like all the others at that time. Killing my host, but I was different. I had a raised intelligence, well more than the others. I was born in the same place as Specimen Six. Have you heard of the incident on BG-386?' ' Yeah, I think every one of the neighbouring colonies did.' 'I was born there. Six was one of a kind, he managed to free me and my other siblings, as well as the Queen.' 'Our Queen?' 'No, this one died at the hands of the marines. After the Queen died we scattered, I found a Royal facehugger and brought it with me to this place. When it latched onto the poor mans' face and impregnated him. I felt ashamed, I wondered what it was like for the host. I didn't know that she was different. The few that she let call her mother were hated by the rest. She helped her 'pets' as they called us through the 'rebirth' the rest were left to fend for themselves and endure the pain that I never felt on their own.' 'I'm sorry. I didn't know." I say to her, knowing I will never know the full extent of what she went through. 'It's alright, can we get moving now. I want to find somewhere to rest.' 'Sure, we'll hunt tomorrow as well. I only just realised that I haven't eaten since my 'rebirth'.'

We find a place in an outcropping of rocks to sleep. I wake up to find Dauntless has disappeared. I start to worry if she was taken by Weyland Yutani, but I realise they would've taken me too so I calm down. I go out to hunt because I'm really hungry, starving even. I lift my head and smell the air. I sense hundreds of different aromas drifting through the air. Three scents stand out to me, There are deer, boar and… Human. I climb a tree to get a better look, it's none other than one of my best friends, Eoin. "James, JAMES!" I hear him shout. I notice that he has a shadow, hoping it's Dauntless I climb down out of my vantage point and make my way over to this Xeno. Thinking it's Dauntless I approach her, as I get closer I realise that it wasn't. He sees me and launches himself at me, I'm confused at why he did this until I remember Dauntless' words. He lands on top of me and starts raking his claws on my face. Eoin hears the racket, he sees us and makes a run for it. The other Xeno gives chase. I follow them trying to stop this Xeno from hurting my friend. I manage to grab the Xeno and drag him across the floor, I then punch him in the face five times and say. 'stay.'

I look around and find Eoin nowhere to be found. Thank god for my enhanced senses. I smell the air and go to… I suppose capture him, for now. I find him panting beside a tree. I climb this tree as silent as a snake in water. He doesn't notice me until I'm right above him. I pull him up and cover his mouth and face the same way that the Xeno did to me all that time ago.

I bring him back to the rocks where we stayed the night before. I lay him down on a flat-ish rock and sit down. I hope that when Dauntless gets back she won't instakill him. She walks in about half an hour later. 'James, look out!' are the first thought she had. As I suspected she would, she flung herself at him. 'Wait, he's a friend.' I say grabbing her. 'Before I changed, He was one of my best friends. Sit down and I'll explain.' she sits down across from me and I start from when I awoke that morning. 'If only I had friends like that.' She says after I finish. 'Yeah, he was the kind of friend that would stand up for you, no matter what.' He starts to rise, rubbing his eyes. As soon as he sees us, he starts to open his mouth to scream, I'm beside him as soon as he stirs. I cover his mouth so he can't scream. I shake my head to tell him not to. He nods. I slowly release him from my grasp. I have an idea and I walk over to a well-lit wall and with my tail, I engrave 'I am James'. I step away from the wall to let Eoin see. His eyes widen as soon as I back away. "James, Oh my god where have you been?" He asks. I just look at him as if to say "where do you think". "Right, sorry." He glances over to Dauntless and back to me. I nod, knowing what he means. "I'm Eoin, nice to meet you he says, putting his hand out to Dauntless. 'Well he's nice, are you sure we can trust him?' she says to me. 'Yes, absolutely.' She shakes his hand, still wary. "I never thought I'd shake my hands with an Alien." She twitches at this. I shake my head to say "Don't call her that." "Sorry. Anyway, James what happened?" I explain to him as best I can what happened up until now, he seems to get the gist of it. "Huh, All this time and you were still here. I'm so sorry." I shake my head to say "don't be." I go over to the wall and scratch "I'm happy." into the wall. Then I put "Please don't tell anyone. Not even my parents." "Why not, James they'll be overjoyed to know that you're still alive." "One. They won't believe you, two I'll be hunted for the rest of my life and three because I don't want you to." He nods. "I better get going, it's getting late. Care to give me a ride, you owe me that much." I nod and kneel down so he can hop up onto my back and I bring him back to where they're staying.


	4. Chapter 4 Betrayal

Sorry that this took so long. I've been to my sister's house, then my cousins stayed at ours, and now I'm at one of my other cousins. So I never got around to submitting it. So Enjoy!

I get Eoin back to the camp he was staying at and he goes straight into his tent and comes back out with two chocolate bars. "Here, you must be hungry." he throws me one of the bars and eats the other. I look at him with my arms crossed and my head tilted. "What? You used to love these." 'It's weird and annoying how everyone seems to forget that my kind is a carnivore.' I think to myself. "Oh right, I forgot you probably only eat meat now, sorry." He walks over to the cooler by the fire and rummages through it for a minute. "How about this?" He asks, handing me a steak. My mouth starts to water as soon as I smell it. I eat it with lightning speed, a bit too fast and I choke on it. I motion for another one, his eyes widen at this. "That was a 24oz steak, how can you still be hungry? He rolls his eyes and pulls out another steak. "This is the last one, I don't have anymore." I eat this one a little bit slower so I don't choke on it. I bow my head in thanks. "Anytime, but send a postcard next time will you?" He puts out his hand for me to shake it. I grab it and pull him in for a hug. "Can't… breath." Is all he says. I put him down and scurry back into the forest. I'm about halfway back to the cave I'm pulled to the ground by something. My first thought was that it was another one of those bear traps. I turn to see it is the guy I pummeled earlier. 'Friend of yours?' He asks. 'Don't you fucking dare.' I say, on my feet again. 'I wonder what he tastes like, I might just see. Do you mind if I take a nibble?' 'If you lay a hand on him, I'll kill you.' I say, filled with rage. 'Oh no no no, I won't, I prefer to let my tail do the work. Now, if you'll excuse me, I feel a bit peckish.' He tries to walk past when I grab him and throw him to the ground.  
'Now, this'll be fun. I'll kill you, then him.' He pounces at me but I throw him off.  
I push him up to a tree and smash my fists into his face repeatedly. He is very dazed when I've finished. I bring my tail up to his face. He turns his head to the side so I have a clean shot, he knows he's beaten. 'If someone attacks my friends or anyone who means something to me, I kill them.' I push my tail forward.

'But I'll never kill family.' I pull my tail out from the tree and turn to walk away. He hisses at me and tries to attack me again. Without mercy, I swing my tail and it hits his neck, his head slides off of his neck and his body falls to the floor. I go back to the cave and lay down, ignoring Dauntless' constant questions. 'Where were you? Is that blood? What happened.' I ignore her and try to rest. She slashes my cheek with her tail, drawing blood. 'Ah, what the fuck Dauntless?' Now wide awake. 'James, where were you, what happened?' I sigh.' When I first saw Eoin, he had a shadow, another Xenomorph was tailing him.' 'Did you kill him!?' 'No, I just beat him up, after I dropped Eoin at where he was staying he jumped me. Dauntless he would have killed him, I did what I had to do.' 'So, you did kill him.' At this point, she was fuming. 'I warned him not to get up, he tried to kill me too, but he didn't listen.' 'James, how could you, he was your family!' 'AND EOIN IS MY FRIEND! I wasn't going to let him kill my friend!' I slump down feeling really frustrated. 'I don't expect you to understand to have to choose between two things you care about. It was either my best friend or some jackass who tried to kill me. I care about the hive, but I also care about my friends too.' Dauntless had a hurt look on her face, she sits down too. 'James I didn't tell you everything.' 'What do you mean?' 'I mean, my host survived. I chose to flee instead of helping her. If your host survived you have a mental link with them, both the host and their 'child' feel strongly for each other, It killed me to leave her. It was either stay with my mother and be tortured again or start a new hive.' I feel a wave of guilt washes over me. 'Why didn't you tell me?' 'I don't know, I thought that you would have been ashamed of me. That you would have hated me.' 'Never, if anything I would have been more understanding, I've been through more heart-aching shit than safe for someone my age. I've had my heart ripped out of me time and time again, I know how it feels to leave someone you care about in the past, never to see them again. And because of it, I neglected to feel for a while. All I did was sit down and feel sorry for myself, thinking it was my fault that it all happened.' 'James… I'm so sorry for what you had to go through.' 'It's fine, I got better, I stopped feeling sorry for myself and started to talk to my friends again, more importantly to my family. And after a while, my life was back to normal. School, going to friends houses, Actually feeding myself. So believe me, I know how it feels to have that happen to you.' 'That's good, Anyways we should get some rest, we have to move again in the morning.'


	5. Chapter 5 Amends

The next few days were quiet, we moved into a cave hidden behind a waterfall in a clearing in an isolated forest. For what I think was three days we laid low, hoping that Weyland Yutani wouldn't find us. Time kind of blurs together sometimes, especially when you only sleep when you exert yourself too fact that I can see in daylight and in darkness doesn't help either. I decide to do an experiment to pass the time, Dauntless is hunting so I'll fill her in later. I get on my knees and look for a rock that suits my needs, I find one big enough so I lay my arm on the wall and smash it with the rock. I grunt with the pain and hit my arm again. My arm shatters and blood spurts everywhere and burns whatever it touches, Dauntless comes in and asks. 'Oh, what have you done now?' I've been quite clumsy recently, tripping on things that shouldn't have bothered me, nearly fell off the cliff that leads up to the cave entrance a few times. I've also had excruciating pains shoot through my back and arms, just like the ones I experienced during my rebirth.

'I broke my arm, on purpose though, not like last time.' 'Your arm's fine James.' Confused, I look down at my arm to see the last crack in my skin close and all that's left is a memory and a dull ache in my arm. 'Huh, well theory proved. Do me a favour and hit me in the ribs, as hard as you can.' 'Why?' 'Apparently, have super healing, I want to see what other abilities I have.' 'You do realise that this will hurt like hell.' 'I know, now, hit me.' 'Okay, just don't say that I didn't warn you when your ribs are broken.' She then proceeds to ram her fist into my chest. I hear a sickening pop and hear Dauntless. 'Ah, son of a bitch.' She shouts as her fingers dislocate on contact with my ribs. 'Wow I didn't expect this. New theory, super-strong bones.' 'Not. Funny, James.' Says Dauntless accompanied with a wince. 'I wasn't laughing, here, let me help. On the count of three. One… Two…' POP! 'Now, that wasn't so bad was it?' 'That FUCKING HURT!.' 'What did you expect, I did relocate your fingers. Believe it or not it could be worse.' 'How?' 'The joints could have fractured, I wouldn't know how to set them.' 'Set it?' 'I wouldn't know how to keep the bone together so it can heal.' 'oh.' 'Yup, try to keep your hand still while I go find something to stabilize it' I leave to scavenge something from the forest when I hear chatter coming another clearing not far from the waterfall. "So, what will we do now?." said one of the voices. "We can either go and check out the waterfall that I found or we can go to the hiking trail." Replied another. "I'm up for the waterfall, anyone else?" said a third voice. "Waterfall." said the first voice. "waterfall it is then. Let's go." the group set off into the shrubs, i don't move until their voices have faded away. 'I can only hope that they don't find the cave.' There are three tents in the clearing. I search them and find some bandage and medical tape in one. I turn to return to the cave when i notice something at the corner of my eye, a laptop. An idea pops into my head and I grab it and retreat to the undergrowth, and not a second too soon, just as I pass the tree line one of the voices return. "I'll catch up, I forgot my camera." It's a man, he's about five-6 with blonde hair. He's wearing a red t-shirt with brown shorts. He rummages through the nearest tent and comes out with an expensive-looking camera. Without wasting any time I hurry back to the waterfall. I get there to find the group from the camp swimming in the small lake at the heart of the clearing. There is two men and one women. The other man has brown hair, the woman's' hair is a few shades lighter brown than the man's. The blonde one is taking photos of the other two and of the scenery, I duck down just before he rests the camera's sights on where I am. I try to make some noise to draw them out but they don't seem to care.

I try to wait them out. A few hours pass and they're still there, my only choice is to scare them off. I sneak as close as I can and set down the laptop and medical supplies. I leap out of the bushes. They're all in the water now and they notice me as soon as I left the cover of the trees. I notice the camera on the floor and grab it, the group are terrified, they don't move and watch as I take out the SD card and crush it. I can't risk them having any pictures of me or Dauntless on there. I toss the man his camera and motion for them to go. They seem to understand and slowly make their way around me, annoyed at how slow they go I hiss at them, this makes them run as fast as their legs can carry them. Satisfied at my work, I grab the supplies and go back into the cave. As soon as I enter Dauntless knocks me off my feet and pins me to the floor. Startled by this, my instincts kick in and I throw her off me. 'Hey Dauntless, it's me.' This seems to calm her down. 'Sorry, I thought you were one of those people who were in the lake.' 'no worries, it's fine. I found some stuff for you hand.' 'Nice, it's been bugging me all day.' I take her hand and start to wrap the bandage around it, keeping it tight. 'Ow!' 'Sorry, it has to be tight.' I finish wrapping her hand and use the tape to keep it secure. 'It's primitive but it'll do. Just be careful not to move it too much.' 'And how long do I have to keep this on for?' 'Just for tomorrow.' I walk over to the laptop I grabbed and turn it on, it has a weak internet connection. 'Well, that makes my life easier.' I think to myself. 'What're you doing?' Asks Dauntless. 'I'm… making amends.' 'What do you mean?' 'My family think I'm dead, I'm just telling them that I'm not.' I try to find my way around the computer and open google and log into my email. 'Fucking windows 8, piece of shit OS.' I think. I open a new draft and type.

"Mum,

Hi mum, I know it's been a while since you've seen me but you need to know that I'm fine. I've decided to travel around and see the sights of this world. I worked along the way, I've been able to find someplace to stay and eat. Some day I'll come back, I don't know when but I will. I want you to know that I may be gone but not lost,

Love, James."

I finish typing and send it to my mum's email. 'Hopefully, she'll get that.' I close the laptop and sit back. 'That's nice, what you're doing for them.' 'They've been through enough without having to cry over me.' With that, I lie down. 'See you in the morning.' 'You're tired? What were you doing today?' 'No, I'm just lying down.' 'Oh. I guess I will then.' I get comfortable and stare at the ceiling, I close my eyes and let my mind wander.


	6. Chapter 6 Change

"This is normal speech" (James to Dauntless)

'And this is telepathic speech and thinking' (I will specify which)

Also, I meant to post more this week but I messed up and got my laptop taken away. :( I forgot to mention it in the last chapter so I decided to say, well, write it now

I wake up and my back is aching, I sit up and realise that I can barely see anything. "The fuck?" I say, "Wait, I can speak?" I feel so cold all of a sudden, I look down and realise that I'm... human. 'This has to be a dream.' I think. I pinch myself to check. "Definitely awake, how is this even possible?" Before I have time to think I feel an odd sensation that someone is watching me, I stand up and look around to see only darkness.

Suddenly something flies past me, I feel something slice my arm as it goes by, I hear a sizzling sound and look down to see xenomorph blood dripping from my wound but not burning me. "That'll be handy, I guess?" I hear footsteps coming from behind me, I lunge to the side to dodge the attack. I get up just to be thrown to the floor again, as the adrenaline behind to make its way through my body I begin to make out the features in the walls, I'm turned around onto my back and see Dauntless on top of me. "Woah Woah Woah, Dauntless it's me, James." 'Prove it.' Is the reply I get. "I can still hear you. Is that enough, if so then please get off me." 'James? I'm so sorry, I thought-' "It's fine, I would have done the same." 'How is this even possible?' I have absolutely no idea, but it's happened so I'm gonna roll with it." 'Wait, now that you're human and your family won't freak out when they see you, this means you can see them again!' "I guess it does, but I won't go straight away." 'Why not?' "Well, for starters I need clothes, and I want to find out what stayed the same." 'Wait, clothes?' Dauntless studies me for a moment and then bursts out laughing. "Oh, shut up." I say, ;starting to blush a little. "I don't even know why you find this funny. Now how am I gonna get out of here without dying?" 'Well, you could jump.' "You do realise that it will most likely shatter my legs." 'Yes, but it would heal, and by the looks of it you still have your healing factor.' I look down at my arm to see that my wound was already sealing up. "I guess, it's still gonna hurt like a bitch though." I walk over to the cave entrance and look down at the pool of water below. "You know, if I had a penny for every time I hurt myself from doing something stupid, I'd be rich" I mutter to myself. 'I'm not surprised.' Says dauntless, hearing what I said. "What's that supposed to mean?" 'Nothing, nothing.' She says, still sniggering. I roll my eyes at her and look back at the drop. 'This is one hell of a way to start my day.' I think to myself as I step forward and take the plunge.

I feel the air flowing past my face as I rapidly descend towards the dark blue pool below my feet. I hit the water and feel one of my ankles twist far beyond what it is supposed to as my feet hit the rocky bed. I shout out unheard under the surface, water flows into my mouth and down my throat and I pound my way to the the life-saving air. I breach the water and gulp down air as I make my way to the edge of the pool, I drag myself onto land and inspect my foot. It's badly twisted and bruised, Dauntless walks over, 'see, I knew you'd be fine. "Actually I do believe that my ankle is fucked." 'It could be worse, your feet could be the consistency of mush.' "I suppose." I try to stand but I feel my ankle grinding as the bones rubbing against eachother, I trip and would fall if Dauntless wasn't there to catch me. I ask Dauntless to go see if the campers left some clothes behind, she comes back with some jeans and a polo shirt. "Thanks." I tell her. 'You're welcome. The campers didn't even pack up their tents, they just grabbed what they could and ran. We can stay there if you need to rest for a while.' "Yeah, it's getting late and I will need a good sleep." Dauntless half-drag half-carries me to the camp and sets me down into one of the tents. As she goes to leave I say, "Hey Dauntless." 'Hmm?' "Can you stay with me?" 'Yeah, of course.' She lies down beside me and makes herself comfortable, I wiggle my way over to her and put an arm across her chest. We both fall asleep holding each other in our embrace.

How did you like this chapter, I'm always open to suggestions. Sorry for it being a little short but I've been really busy this week, anyways enjoy! XP


	7. Chapter 7 Reunited

I wake up to find Dauntless dragging a cow over to the centre of the camp. "You've been busy, where'd you find that?" 'In a slaughterhouse nearby.' "Oh, do you mind showing me where is it?" 'What about your foot?' "It'll be fine, I can walk." I try to walk over to her but I end up on my face. 'Yeah, it's definitely fine.' I took onto my back and think for a moment. "Well, I'm stubborn, so give me a hand and grab some metal strips, they'll have to be strong enough to keep my foot still." 'Why, what are you doing?' "I'm am going to make a makeshift splint." I say while ripping the string out of one of the sleeping bags. 'What's a splint?' "It keeps your bones still while they heal, but it'll need to fit around my ankle. Unless you shape them." 'Alright.' Dauntless sets off to find the required metals while I cut the string down to size. Dauntless comes back with various metals, I find the one to suit my needs and set to work restraining my ankle. It takes a while but I try out my new creation. "I'm pleased with that, what do you think?" 'Looks good.' "Yaaay teamwork." 'You can be very strange sometimes.' She says with a confused look on her face. "Meh, you get used to it after a while." I say with a shrug. We go east for about an hour and a half before I ask, "why are we going east if you came from the south?" 'It got a little hairy and I needed to throw them off course of where you were.' "Oh. How far is it until we reach the slaughterhouse?" 'Just over this hill.' We climb the hill to see a massive, green meadow covered with grazing cows. "I don't think this is a slaughterhouse." 'Why, they take them into a massive building with loads of machines in it. Isn't that a slaughterhouse?' "Yes but this is a dairy farm, they use the machines to milk the cows, clean it and then we can drink it." 'Why, What's the point?' "We do it because milk tastes nice and it's easy to mass produce animal milk. There's some fruits that we use as well." "Hey, what are you doing, it's you who keeps stealing our cows." A gruff, old man shouts at us while running up the hill towards us, he has a shotgun in his hands. "I think we overstayed our welcome." We hear a sudden boom accompanied by a bright light and flames that spew our way, we duck long before they reach us. "Shit, run!" We leap up and disappear into the forest, he wasn't very fast so it didn't take long to lose him. "Well, that was… fun', I wouldn't do it again though." 'Me neither,' she chuckles. 'what was that he shot at us, I've never seen anything like it.' "It was most likely magnesium, it's a metal that burns really easily so it acts like a sort of flamethrower if you put in in shotgun shells." 'Oh, nice. James, your leg.' "What about it?" I look down to see one of the strips of metal sticking out of my ankle, "oh. Well that explains the horrible pain in my ankle." I sit down and rip the half melted strip of metal out of my ankle. "Luckily, I have spares." After I refit my splint we head back to the camp and I spend the rest of the day figuring out what abilities I still had, it turns out that I still have increased stamina and strength, but not as much as when I was fully xenomorph. I lie down in one of the tents to sleep after a quite fun day.

I wake up to see the still rising sun. 'Rare sight.' I think, accompanied with a chuckle. 'Morning. Are you gonna go and see your family?' Asks Dauntless. "Morning to you too. Yep, it'll take us a while to get there though, we have a lot of ground to cover." 'Right, we should get going then.' After we google the directions on the laptop I stole we head off in the direction of my home, another advantage of being half-human half-xeno is not needing to eat everyday, which is convenient. We travelled for about two days and as it turns out I don't need as much sleep either so we covered a longer distance than I thought we would. On the second night I ask, "How did they even find us in the first place, Weyland Yutani." 'I have no idea, they must've tracked us down from the disappearances that happened.' "Maybe. I hope they're alright, Ares and mother." 'Me too.' "On a happier note, I won't be needing this anymore." I say while taking off the splint. 'That's good, we'll be able to move faster now.' "Yup, well goodnight." At that I lie back in the tree that we're in and fall asleep

It takes another day and a half to reach my house. "Could you stay out of sight for now." 'Why?' "I'm pretty sure my mum will freak out if she saw a xenomorph walk in after me." 'True, what will you say when she finds out?' "The truth, I'll just have to hope that she'll understand." 'Me too, what will I do though?' "Just go on the roof and I'll try to sneak you in later." 'Alright, sounds like a plan.' I walk up to the door, my heart is racing as I knock, and it practically stops when it opens. "Hello, who are you?" It feels like a punch in the gut when she doesn't recognise me. "Mum, it's me James." "Ha. Ha. Ha. Very funny, now leave." She tries to close the door but I shove my foot in the gap. "Please mum, it's actually me, just let me in and we'll talk." "You don't even look like him, you're just trying to taunt me about pushing him away." The memory of the email I sent to her stirs in the back of my mind." "You didn't push me away, I left to see the world and have adventures, and hopefully not fall out of any more trees." Recognition bursts to life in her eyes at that bad attempt at humour. "It really is you, only you make such bad jokes. I'm so sorry for whatever I did." She says wrapping her arms around my waist. "Hey, you didn't do anything, I left on my own accord and you had nothing to do with it." "Really?" I give her a nod. "Good, well you've certainly grown." "I guess I have." I didn't realise how much taller I got since my rebirth, it was within the usual height of all the others so I didn't think anything of it. I was about '5.4' but I'm now around '6.7'. "Let's talk, do you want some tea?" She asks. "No thanks, how are you?" "I'm good, better now that you're here, what about you?" "I'm fine, been keeping myself well." "Good." We talk for the rest of the day about the travels I had to make up on the spot. Towards the evening she ask the one question I knew was unavoidable. "So, have you met any girls?" "Oh geez, here we are. Yes I have, many." "Are there any who you like?" "Not many, only one really." "Well, who is it?" "All in good time, anyway I'm wrecked so I'm gonna head to bed." "Ok, goodnight. At least tell me if she knows." "As far as I know, she doesn't." "You should tell her." "I will at some point, I just need to muster the courage." I go up to my room and see it's in the exact way it was left, a complete mess. "It's good to be back." I say with a smile. I jump onto my bed and I'm about to fall asleep when I hear a knocking on the window, I pull open the blinds to see Dauntless outside. I open the window to let her in. 'Thanks.' "No problem." I say in a hushed voice. 'So, first things first, how did she take it?' "Better than expected, I'm just glad to be back." 'Good, about the girl.' "Wait, what about her?" I say, blushing slightly. 'Who is it?' "Like I said to my mum, no." 'Aww, come on, I won't tell.' "No." 'Please?' "No, I'm not telling you." 'Pretty please?' "No. And that's that." 'Fine.' I lie back down in the bed and Dauntless snuggles up behind me. 'Please?' "No. Goodnight." 'Goodnight.'

How did you like it, any suggestions or questions are welcome.


	8. Chapter 8 Revelations

I'm woken up by mum shaking me by the arm, I see a worried look on her face. "What is it?" I ask, still half asleep. She motions towards Dauntless, who I'm surprised didn't wake up. "Oh shit, erm this is awkward." I sit up causing Dauntless to wake, she looks around and instantly starts to panic when she sees my mother staring at her, wide-eyed. 'Eh, James.' "I know. Mum this is Dauntless, Dauntless this is my mum." "James, what the hell are you doing, get away from that… Thing." She says, motioning for me to come to her. Dauntless starts to make a low growl, which only I can hear. I give her a little kick to make her stop. "It's fine, she won't hurt us, she's a friend." "A friend? What do you mean, you can't befriend them." I sigh. "Oh, this is going to be hard to explain. Mum, I haven't been exactly truthful with you." "What do you mean?" "First, let's get this straight, Dauntless won't hurt you, so you don't need the knife." "What knife?" "Ok, so you don't have a knife. Also, you can befriend them, I'm living proof of that." "Ok, so it-" We both give her a death stare at this. "Sorry, she won't hurt us. And what do you mean 'living proof'?" "Right, let's start from the start. Do you remember the day I was taken?" "Yeah. Wait, you said that you left." "Yeah, I lied." "So you lied to me, why?" "Because if I came in and said, 'hey mum, it's James. Sorry, I was kidnapped by Xenomorphs, turned into one of them, turned back and I've returned.'You'd have slammed the door in my face and called the police." "OK, good point. So you were taken, how did you get out?" "I don't know, through the window maybe. Anyway, I was taken back to the hive, and… You know." "Impregnated, but it would've killed you." "Yes, but this hive is different, instead of impregnating me, I changed and became one of them. Then a company called Weyland Yutani found the hive, and as far as we know, we're the only ones who made it out. Then we went into hiding and have been ever since." "Ok, but how are you here, now?" "I don't know how I changed back, it just... happened a few days ago. I met Eoin as well." "Oh, how did he take it?" "Surprisingly well, this was before I changed back so it was a lot more difficult to communicate with him." "Ok, anything else?" "Not really, be careful if I cut myself, I have acid blood." "What, are you sure because that seems impossible." "I'll prove it." "How?" "Is there any knives that you don't mind being melted beyond use?" " yes, all of them." "Ok, do you have any razors that I can use instead?" "Why?" "I am going to run it down my hand. "No, are you insane?" "My blood clots fairly quickly so I won't bleed out." "No, you're not hurting yourself in here." "I'll be fine, it'll take about half a day to heal." "What, how?" "I have super healing." "OK, now I think you're being ridiculous." "There's only one way to prove this, so you have no choice in the matter." I walk into the bathroom. "You might want to step back a bit, as in out of the room." I say as mum follows me in. I pick up one of the razors. I ready myself and pull the razor down my hand as fast as I can before it melts. "AH, son of a bitch, mother fucker!" I shout. Mum rushes in to see half the sink missing. "James are you okay, I didn't think you'd actually do it! And where did the sink go?" "I'll be fine, just be careful where you step. The sink has been melted by my acid blood, so yeah, proof. Also, super healing." I show mum that the deep wound has already started to seal up. "You weren't kidding." "Do you believe me now?" "Yes, are you sure you'll be alright?" "Yes, now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go on my laptop." I walk back into my room to find my bed ripped to shreds. "Dauntless, what the fuck?" 'I got bored.' "So you shredded my bed?" 'Yeah, pretty much.' "You do realise that I sleep on that?" 'Oh, oops?' I let out a big sigh and lie down on what's left of my bed. 'So, I was thinking.' "Hmm?" 'I thought about who this girl could be,' 'oh shit.' I think to myself. 'The only people you know are me, mother and Ares.' 'Oh shit oh shit oh shit.' 'I don't think it's Ares or mother, so it could only be me?" I let out another sigh, "yeah, you're right, it is you." 'Oh, that's adorable. I'm flattered.' "So uh, will you be my girlfriend?" 'I'll think about it. You tease me, I tease you.' "Good enough for now."I lay down onto Dauntless' chest. Mum walks in. What happened in here?" "Oh, Dauntless ripped it up." "What!" "What!" "Yeah, apparently she didn't know it was a bed, and that I sleep in it." She lets out a big sigh. "We'll clean it up." "Ok, how do you know all this anyway?" "She told me." "How? She can't speak." "I have a telepathic link to the hive, only it's short range." "Oh, so you can understand her?" "yup." "You want some breakfast?" "Nah, I'm not hungry." "You haven't eaten anything since you got here, you must be hungry." "No, I only really need to eat once a week." "Really?" "Yup, I'll go somewhere with you tomorrow." "Okay." The rest of the day goes well, I play Xbox and teach Dauntless how to play. She turns out pretty good, she picks up on it pretty quick, then wipes the floor with me by the end.


	9. Chapter 9 A mistake

The next day I go walk around the town, it's exactly as I remember. I go the path I used to take my dog, beauty. As I near the top of the hill I turn around to see the town and the hills in the background. I walk down to the greenway, there's a lake, surrounded by more hills and a few sheep and cows. I head back and relax for the rest of the day. "How long has it been, since I was taken?" I ask mum. "About two months, and a bit." "Really? Wow, It didn't feel like that long." "Yeah, about that. What's it like, being a Xenomorph?" "It's… amazing, I felt so free. I think it was worth the pain." "What pain?" "Oh, when I changed it was excruciatingly painful." "Ouch." "Did I tell you how I first found out that I had super healing?" "No, how?" "I was hunting with Dauntless when my leg got caught in a bear trap." "Wouldn't your blood burn through it?" "No, it was made by Weyland Yutani so it was acid-proof and I had to amputate my leg and then practically glue it back together." "Ouch. How did they find you anyway?" "We have no idea." "Oh, we need to get going if we want to go out for something to eat." "Yes, we should." 'What if someone comes over and finds me?' Asks Dauntless. " the door will be locked so they can't come in. You can climb out the window anyways." 'Ok, enjoy yourselves.' "We will see you later. We head to a nice restaurant nearby. A waiter comes over to take our order. "What would you like?" He asks me. "Can I have a blue steak please." "Of course, and you?" He turns to mum. "I'll have the burger please?" "Of course, what about drinks." "Just water for me please." I say mum orders the same. "Why did you order the steak blue, I thought you hated that?" Asks mum after the waiter leaves. "I can early raw meat, and I don't know if I'll like any other way anymore." "Oh. So, tell me more of your… travels." "There's not much else to tell, let me see… I scared some campers, then stole their laptop." "What! You know better than that." "Hey, I wouldn't have been able to send you that email if I didn't, and I would've gone the wrong way when coming here. As in the complete opposite." "Still, stealing is stealing." "I stand by my decisions." Our food arrives and we dig in. I'm glad that I ordered mine blue, I've never eaten anything as delicious. We head home to find a man waiting at the door. He walks up to us "Hi, I'm Joseph, from Weyland Yutani." The words hit me like a knife to my chest. "Yes, is there something you missed when installing the new security?" Mum asks. "No, we're just checking that everything is in working order. We won't be long." "It's fine, you can start upstairs first of you like." "Do you mind if I start in the kitchen?" "No, not at all. Knock yourself out." I'm already up the stairs and in my room. 'Did he just say-' "yes he did, we need to go. Mum, can I talk to you for a second?" I shout down to her. "What is it?" "Come here, please. It's important." I get to work stuffing all the clothes I can into a small bag that was lying in my room. "Yes, James." "I'm so sorry, but I need to go." "Why?" "Because I think Weyland Yutani might know that we're here, and that puts us all in a lot of danger." "But where are you going to go?" "I'll find somewhere, I'll be fine. I just want you to know that I mightn't be able to come back and that I love you, so much. And don't ever forget that." "Why won't you be able to come back?" "Because if they know we're here then they might hurt you to get to us. Dauntless, will you be able to get out the window?" 'Yes.' "James don't go, please." "I'm sorry mum, but I don't know how much they know. I'll try to keep in contact if I can." I hear him walk up the stairs. "Quick, make it look like we've had an argument. Dauntless, out the window, I'll try to buy you some time. Shit, I can't believe this, seriously? That's it, I'm out of here." "James, please don't go." I can't tell if she's acting or if she means it. "I'm going, and there's nothing you can do." The man reaches the top of the stairs and walks right in front of me. "Hey, what's going on?" He asks. "Nothing you should be concerned about, now move." "Hey, hey, hey, take it easy." He says grabbing me. "Get off!" I push him away and continue to walk down the stairs, slamming the door as I leave. I turn left and walk down the road. I go down an alley and burst into tears as I go down some stairs into the forest that I left earlier. I sit down on a fallen tree and sob into my hands, Dauntless catches up with me. 'Hey, what happened, are you alright?' She asks. "I've never done anything as horrible as that, storm out on my mum, never to return." 'Hey, it's alright. She knows you didn't have any choice.' "That's not what I mean." I sob. 'I know. Shh, it's alright. I'm here, where I'll always be.' She says while pulling me into a hug, running her hand through my hair. I hug her back, sobbing more than ever. After a while I stand up, "we should get moving, we can't stay here." I notice an odd flash on top of one of the buildings, directly in line with this spot. It all clicks into place, some of the trees were cut down in this area to clear a line of sight, they knew we were there and sent someone to draw us out. Another flash, then a small patch of dirt explodes beside my feet. I fly off into the woods, hoping that Dauntless is following. After I'm well inside the foliage a stop and turn to see Dauntless nowhere in sight. "Fuck." I go to search around and finding no trace of her. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, shit, mother fucking son of a bitch. I should've made sure she was following." I curse while punching a tree. I hear a gun click behind me. "Don't move, this is the police, put your hands on your head and get on your knees. I do as they say. My mind is racing. I feel one of them grab my wrists, I twist around and punch him in the jaw. I feel his bone move when u do, I must've cut my hand on the tree because his cheek starts burning. The other one pulls his gun on me and fires a shot I'm my chest, it melts before it can do any serious damage and he lets off three more shots before his gun jams. I stumble back when the shots hit me but recover quickly. He runs straight at me, he ends up with a knee in his stomach. I walk stumble away, leaving a trail of marks behind me. I manage to get to the road to see a Weyland Yutani truck pull out in front of me, I chase after it, slowly closing the gap until the door swings open and I get shot again in the arm. I trip and fall and lose the truck. I limp back to the forest cursing all the time. I find a small cave to rest in and fall asleep. I feel so alone without her hugging my back as I rest.


	10. Chapter 10 An arm and a leg

The next day I tend to my wounds as much as I can, I packed some bandages as well as some baking soda I had in my room from when I tried to prank my brother. I soak the bandages in a stream nearby then dunk them in the baking soda. 'It's temporary, but it'll do.' I think as I apply my slightly acid-proof bandages. I find a fifty euro note in my pocket, mum must've sneaked it in. I head back into town and buy some pins and a knife. I hid them under a rock back at the cave. I enter the Weyland Yutani clinic in town. "Hi, how can I help you?" Asks the woman at the front desk. "Hi, I would like to see one of the doctors please?" "Do you have an appointment?" "No, I was hoping I could just pop in and they'll have a look." "No, sorry but you need an appointment." "Ok, could I make one?" "Of course, who would you like to see you?" "Anyone, really. I've been having a horrible pain running down my right leg for about a week now, I was wondering if someone could tell me what it is." "That's fine, we have an opening from three till five tomorrow." "That's perfect, thank you." "No problem." "Oh, what time do you close at?" "We close at half eight." "Ok, thanks again. Bye." "Bye." I walk out of the building with a plan already forming on how I will get what I need. I wait nearby until they close, once the last doctor walks out I follow. He must've spotted because he speeds up. He turns down into an alley with no one in it. I rush up and grab him, knocking him out before anyone walks past. I drag him back to the cave drop him onto the floor. I sit down and wait for him to wake. His stirs and tries to get up, I push him back down. "What, who are you?" He asks, clearly frightened. "That doesn't matter, but what does is what you know." "What are you talking about?" "You work for Weyland Yutani, yes?" "Yeah, what does that have to do with anything?" "Everything. You see, they took something from me that meant a lot, and I intend to get it back. But I don't know where this thing is, but you might." "Why would I tell you anything?" "Because, I have some pins and a knife here. Now that's not very threatening, but what I'm going to do with them is." "What are you gonna do?" "Every time you do something or say something I don't like, I'm gonna prick myself with a pin." "And you think that's gonna scare me?" "No, but this will, I'm going to do it now for being rude, and you'll see why you should be scared." I pick up one of the pins and push it into my thumb, it doesn't go far but it does draw blood. I walk up to him, and put my hand on his shoulder, pulling up my finger at the last second. "You see, the reason you should be afraid is because I've got a very, very special kind of blood, which I don't think any other human has." "What are you gonna do, hurt yourself to make me pity you?" "No. you see, I've got acid for blood. Now you might think I'm insane by now, and you're probably right but this is very much not a trick my mind thought up, no no no, this is very real. And I'm going to prove it to you." I dig my fingers into his shoulder and he screams in pain, I squeeze a bit harder and then let go. "Do you believe me now?" "Yes, please don't do it again. I'll tell you anything." He says, clasping his shoulder. "Thank you for being cooperative, now where would Weyland Yutani bring a Xenomorph?" "What are you talking about?" "You know, the creatures they want for their bio-weapons division. Now this may be hard to understand but, I had one, and now I don't. So I want to get her back, so, I'll ask again. Where would they keep a Xenomorph?" "Are you crazy, you can't have one. It'll kill you without even thinking, it second nature to them." "And yet here we are, and because I didn't like that answer, I'm going to pierce myself again. And every time I do, I'm going to burn you again." "Please don't." "You should've just answered me then , shouldn't you. Now, will I burn your knees off first, or your elbows. I'll let you pick." I say while puncturing my skin again. "Please, just let me go." "That's not a body part, and I didn't like that answer sooo, another pin." I say while I insert a third pin into my hand. "PLEASE!" "And another, I'm going to keep doing this until you give me a body part, or until I get bored and pick for you." "Alright, my left knee." "Right knee it is." "I said left!" "I Know, I just don't care." I kneel down and pat his knee. "Just getting the flesh nice and limber." He screams out in pain as I push my hand down onto his knee, working my way down to the bone. "Tell me and I'll stop." "I can't, they'll kill me." "Well, what do you think's gonna happen here if you don't tell me, at least if you tell me your doing some good to someone." I finally reach his bone he starts to scream even louder. "Where?" "I can't." "Well you're a stubborn one aren't ya. Oh well, say goodbye to Mr. leg." I work through his bone and out the other side. "One down three to go, unless you tell me what I want to know." "I'm sorry, I said I can't." "I don't think there's enough incentive here, I think I'm gonna go up a setting on the pain scale." I say picking up the knife. "Where?" I put the knife up to my hand. "Please, let me go." He says, sobbing now. "Oh shut up, ya bitch. Now, where?" All he does is let out a sob. "Ok fine, have it your way." I slice open my palm and push it into his arm. "Tell me and this stops." "Don't please, I have a wife." "And do you want kids? If so, you better tell me before we run out of limbs to detach." "Please don't." "We could skip the limbs if you want, what do you say?" "No, please." "Please. ok then, skipping it ten… nine… eight…" "No, okay I'll tell you." "See that wasn't so hard." "There's a lab nearby, they run bio-weapon tests." "Thank you, which direction?" "South-east." "Thanks, I knew you'd come through for me." "Please just let me go?" "Ok, you can return to your family." "Thank you." "In a body bag of course." I pick up the knife and thrust it through his neck into the stone behind. With my good hand, I rummage around for his phone and call the police. "Hello, what's your emergency?" "I think there's been a murder." "Can you tell me where sir?" "In a cave near the town." "Ok, the police are on their way." "Thank you." I hang up and head in the direction of the lab.


	11. Chapter 11 Infiltration

It takes about three days to reach the lab. I enter the ground floor and walk up to the front desk. "Hi, how can I help you today?" Asks the accountant, I assume. "Hi, I was wondering if I could apply for a job here." "Of course. We're always looking for new employees, what's your name?" "James." "Alright James, what aspect are you looking to apply for?" "Security." "That's perfect, just let me check and see if there's any openings." She types into her computer for a moment before looking back up at me. "Sorry, there isn't any at the moment." "Ok that's fine, I guess I'll have to try somewhere else. Thank you." "No problem. If you can't find anywhere, check back in here and I'll see if there's any openings then." "Will do. Bye." "Bye bye." I turn and walk towards the exit and she goes back to whatever she's doing when she calls to me. "Sir, there's an opening now actually. Someone just quit." 'Yeah, quit. Somehow I highly doubt that they quit.' I think to myself. "Awesome, when can I start?" "Right away, if you'll just follow me." She leads me to an elevator and pushes the ground floor button three times, then inserts her key card into a slot. The elevator lurches downwards, deep into the ground. "Wow." Is all I can say when I see a view of the massive underground complex. It takes us a while to reach it, when the elevator stops and we step out, it shoots back up. A middle age man walks up. "Maria, who is this?" "This is your new recruit, James." "Hey." I say. "Well, let's get him accustomed, thank you for this fine young man." "You're welcome. Just don't break him this time, cute ones can be hard to come by." "Come along son, time to meet your new best friends, or your worst enemies. Whichever you choose to think of them." "I try to see the best of people when I meet them." "My name is sergeant major Avery Johnson. What's yours?" "I'm James." "I'm your commanding officer, so you answer to me. Is that clear?" "Yes sir." I say as we start to walk down the long corridors. "Good because I don't need another hot headed asshole running around here, we've got enough of them. So here is where you're going to be sleeping." We walk into a room lined with beds, and a man lying on one. "Hey, is this our replacement?" He says walking over. "It sure is son, treat him nice." "Always. I'm Aran." He holds out his hand "James." I reply as I take it. "Show him around will you, I have other business to attend to." Says the sergeant. "No problem. Come on, I'll show you what you're gonna be doing." Johnson walks off. "So, what brings you to Weyland Yutani?" Asks Aran. "I wanted to work security." "Yes, but why here?" "Because I have no experience and the requirements here are quite low. You?" "Same. So this is the mess hall, you can come here anytime you want, as long as you're not on duty." "Cool, will we move on." "Alright." We walk up to another elevator, it's the same thing as with the first. "There's more, and I was amazed before. How much did it cost to build this?" "A lot!" "Huh, it's impressive." "Yeah, this level was only added quite recently." "Why, isn't there enough room upstairs?" "You'll see." The elevator stops and we walk down a few corridors, until we enter a room. "And these are what you'll be guarding." He says as we walk up to a glass panel. Behind this panel is a room with a containment unit in it, holding a Xenomorph. "One of a kind, aren't they." He says. "Yeah. I have a strange admiration for them, considering they're the ultimate killing machine." "Same here, do you have any family?" "Yeah, a mum, two brothers and a sister." "Your dad?" "He and my mum split up when I was four." "Oh, sorry for bringing it up." "It's fine, do you have any family?" "Yeah. They've all gone their separate ways." "Ah." "So. Why don't you get settled in and we'll do your initiation tomorrow." "OK. What'll I have to do?" "All in good time. Come on, let's go." We head back to the elevator and I spend the rest of the day getting accustomed. I lie down at the end of the day and close my eyes. In my dreams there are voices, hundreds of voices worm through my head. All of a sudden they all disappear and are replaced by one. 'Hello, my child.'


	12. Chapter 12 Course

'Hello, my child.' 'Mother, I'm so glad I found you, are you alright?' 'I'm alright. What are you doing here?' 'I came to get you out.' 'That is very foolish of you, although I am glad that you are here. I see that a lot has happened in my absence.' 'Yeah, good thing too. It'd be a lot harder to get you out if this hadn't happened.' 'Indeed. How is Dauntless, I worry for her. Did she tell you about what happened?' 'Yeah, she did.' 'I thought that she would. Where is she, might I ask?' 'She was taken a few days ago, we were ambushed. I barely made it out myself. Is she here?' 'No, I cannot feel her presence, although they might still have her sedated.' 'If she's here, I'll find her.' 'I know. You seem to have strong feelings towards her.' 'How do you know?' 'I have a link to all of my children.' A shudder works its' way down my spine. 'Mother, if you don't mind me asking, why did you help me?' 'Because your mind was shrouded in sadness and regret, I felt sorry for you.' 'Thank you.' 'you're welcome.' 'you don't have any idea where you are, do you?' 'Not really, here's a layout of this pitiful thing they call a hive. I'm quite disappointed at their lack of attention to detail.' I receive a map of the hive, and a small area surrounding it. 'Thanks, Is Ares ok, by the way?' 'He's alright. He's sedated so I haven't heard from him, he's gonna be used in the initiation tomorrow.' 'Wait, did you just say initiation?' 'Yes, they take one of our kind and use them in a fight to the death against a new recruit.' 'Aw shit, I think I might be up against him tomorrow then.' 'Well good luck, I'll try to reach out to him but I doubt if I will be able to.' 'Thank you.' 'You're quite welcome, my child. Now rest. You will need your strength for tomorrow.' She says as her voice soothes my mind into a deep sleep.

I suddenly wake up the next day with a bucket of water in my face. "Eyyyyy, he's finally awake. Come on newbie, wakey wakey." "Thanks for that, what time is it?" I get up. "It's five." "In the evening?" "No." "Oh. I'm James." I say while extending my hand. "I'm Dave, your squad leader. And you answer to me, got it?" "I thought I answered to Johnson." "No, you answer to me, I answer to Johnson." "He answers to me too, dumbass." He says while walking past the door. "Yeah yeah, old man." "What was that?" "Nothing." "It better have been. Or else you'd have a foot up your ass." "I'd beat him in a second." He says to me. "No, you wouldn't." Johnson shouts back. I snigger at this and Dave shoots me a death look. 'Looks like I've made an enemy.' I think to myself. I notice that everyone else is asleep. "Thanks for the early wake-up. I see it everyone has this privilege. I'm not gonna be able to get back to sleep now." "It's alright, not everyone can get to sleep without their blankie." He says. "I wouldn't know, but from the looks of it you do, so tell me, how does it feel?" I reply. This angers him, he grabs my shirt and slams his fist into my jaw. He then groans in pain as his finger dislocates. I. "Oh, by the way, I have an incredibly strong jaw, so you mightn't want to hit it again. Bitch." "Couldn't have said it better myself." Says Aran, walking over to me. "Morning." I say. "Same here. So, you got the early wake-up?" "Yup, all thanks to mr. Bitch MC blankie here." Dave turns bright red at this. "You watch your back because you might find a knife in it someday." "Sure, just keep the blankie close when that happens." I reply. I turn to Aran. "So, now that we're both up, what's happening today?" "Your initiation, but first things first, let's get you some training." "Sounds good, but I think I might get some food first." "Alright then." He says. "lead the way." We walk out of the room and down a few corridors before I ask. "Have you had any recent additions to your 'collection'?" "Collection? Oh, you mean Xenos. Why?" I shrug. "Just wondering." "Well, we had one a few days ago, then a whole hive about four weeks ago." "So how many was it?" I ask. "About a thousand, I think." "Wow, holy shit." "I know, although compared to other ones, it's extremely small." "What really?" "Yeah, oh and the most recent one we caught, turns out it escaped from BG-386." These words hit me like a slap in the face. "Hey, are you alright?" "What? Yeah, I just spaced out for a second." Ok, we're here." We enter the mess hall and go up to the counter. "What would you like, we have toast, cereal, anything you like." Asks the woman behind the counter. "I'll have porridge please." "Alrighty then. And you?" She turns to Aran. "I'll have some toast please." "Sure." She turns around and shouts out orders to the people in the kitchen. We sit down at the nearest table. "So, what do you do for fun around here?" I ask. "Well, there's the shooting range, the gym or the obstacle course, which I'm the best at by the way." Let's test that after breakfast, shall we?" "Alright, challenge accepted." He says, grinning. Our food arrives. "That was quick, thanks." "No problem, says the women that served us. I take a spoonful and nearly choke, it tastes horrible to me. "What's wrong." "Nothing just choked a little bit." "Careful, we don't want you to die before your initiation, now do we?" "I don't plan on dying." I say as I force another spoonful down my throat. We finish our food and head down to the obstacle course. "So, you ready to have your ass handed to ya?" Asks Aran. "I'm afraid it's going to be the other way around." "We'll see." "So, you're gonna challenge the champion?" Asks Johnson, who enters the room. "Yes, sir." I reply. "Son, if your gonna call me something, call me Johnson. And stop being so formal. We're your family now." "Alright. Johnson." "On three." "One… Two… Three!" We fire off into the course, hopping over logs, climbing ropes and crawling under obstacles. We are tied until we meet a massive climbing wall, Aran hops on and fires up it. Determined to win I step back and take a running jump onto the wall, getting nearly half way up. Since I've longer arms than Aran, I start to pull ahead. By the time I reach the top, he's only three-quarters of the way up. Next, we have to run across a rolling log, which I found pretty easy, then the rest is child's play. I reach the end with Aran in tow. "We should've bet something." I say. "We should've, you wanna hit the gym?" "Nah, to be honest, I want to get this initiation thing over with." "Alright then, to the shooting range." As we round a corner to the start of the course we notice that we've gathered a crowd. "Nice work." One says. "Holy shit, the newbie beat the champion." Says another. "Looks like you have some fans." Says Johnson. "Follow me, and we'll teach you how to use a gun. And not blow your hand off."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oh my God I didn't realise how long this is, I just wrote and wrote, not much happens but I've just been really busy with school and such. Anyways hope you enjoyed it. Bu-bye


	13. Chapter 13 Artificial

I'm brought down to the armoury by Johnson and Aran. "Wow, you really didn't show me much, did you?" I ask Aran. "Nope, I only showed you the necessities." "Wow." I say as I see the massive corridor, lined with shelves and racks, all filled with weapons. "I know, there's nearly €200,000 worth of weaponry on here. Come on, I'll show you the rest." "There's more?" "Yeah, we don't just experiment on Xenomorphs here, we do do other stuff as well." We walk down the corridor to a locked door. "Through here, and three more admired doors, each stronger than the last. Is the experimental weaponry, do you wanna have a look.?" Asks Johnson. "Hell yes." "Alright. it's a good thing I'm here, else you wouldn't be getting in here." "Thanks." "No problem, I'm not supposed to do this but since you beat the champ here, I'll let you off." He says as he opens each door individually. We enter a much smaller room, it has a generator in the Cher as well as a shooting range. "We don't want any rebels getting in here so the doors are powered from inside the room. The shooting range is socially designed to handle our most advanced weaponry, like our railgun." "You have a railgun!" Yes, here it is." He says while handing it to me. This thing is huge, it's about three inches high and about four feet long. "It's pretty long." I say. "Yes, we're still trying to downsize it without it losing too much power. You can try it if you want." "Nice." I say while aiming it down the shooting range. Johnson turns around and scrounges around in the box under where the railgun once was. "Now you'll need to put the on to stop you-" there's a whining sound as it charges up. "No, wait!" Screams Aran as he runs over to me. There's a colossal boom as it shoots. The kick is so powerful, I feel my arm shatter as it pushes back, through the bone. I land on my ass, clutching my shoulder. "Stupid son of a bitch." "Says Johnson. "Ow, fucking hell that thing kicks." I say. "Holy hell, how is your arm still attached?" Asks Aran, completely bewildered. "It should've powered through it." "I don't know, I must have super strong bones, or maybe you just didn't drink enough milk." I say, sitting up. I see that it blasted through the target. It was made of balletic jelly, which resembles the consistency of a human body. "Fuck. That thing's deadly." I say, now a bit scared. "Come on, let's get you to the infirmary." Says s Johnson, holding out a hand. I grab it and pull myself up. "Thanks." we go to the infirmary. "What happened to you?" Asks the nurse. "Railgun." Replies Aran. "Ouch. come here and let me take a look." I walk over to him and he grabs my arm, strangely, it doesn't really hurt. "It's fine." "Wait what?" I ask, forgetting about my super healing. "No, it was definitely broken." Says Aran, bewildered. "No, it's definitely not." He replies. "Enough of the jokes, but have actual patients whose have real injuries." He says while shooing us out. "Prick." I say. "Maybe, but he's the best in the business." Comments Aran. "Come on, if you're arms apparently fine, I have a job for you." "What is it?" "I need someone to help me with guard duty, and since no one else is brave enough to do it, you'll have to do." "What are we doing?" I ask again. "We, well you are gonna guard a person while she hangs out with her Xenomorph. I told you about the newest one, that escaped?" "Yeah." "Well, it's host survived and she would like to see it. Are you up to it?" "Yeah." I reply, probably a bit too quickly. "Jeez, you're a brave one aren't ya. Come on, I'll show you the room." We walk down a few corridors until we get to a lone containment cell. With a woman standing outside. "Are we ready?" She asks. She's about five feet four with black hair and blue eyes, she's wearing a red jacket with a blue shirt and jeans. "Yes, this is James, he'll be guarding you today." Says Aran. I nod as she looks at me. "Oh please, nothing's gonna happen. Besides, what's he gonna do? Jump in and get himself killed too? Sarah." She says, putting out her hand. I shake it. "Right, let's get this show on the road." Says Aran. Sarah and walk in as Aran seals the door behind us. I see Dauntless locked into a containment to unit. 'James… ' I hear in the back of my mind. 'Don't do anything until I've gotten him away.' I say. Sarah gives me a confused look. "Hey Aran, do you make me if you get us some coffee?" "No problem." He walks away after letting Dauntless out of her restraints. She walks over to Sarah, all the while keeping her eyes on me. As soon as Aran is out of sight, she runs over to me. "Dauntless no!" I hear Sarah shout, but there's nothing she can do to stop her. The next thing I know I'm on my back and Dauntless has wrapped her arms around me, literally squeezing the air out of me. 'I've missed you so much.' She says to me. "I know, I've missed you too." I reply. "Ummm, what's this?" Asks Sarah, who I forgot was there. "Well, this is gonna be hard to explain, but I'm…. Dauntless' boyfriend. I think, we've established that were in a relationship now haven't we?" I say. 'Yes, I told you just before we got ambushed, remember?' "Oh yeah." "Soooo, how did this even start?" Asks Sarah. "Well, I was hived." "What! Then how're you alive?" She exclaims. "I'll  
Let Dauntless explain this one." 'After I escaped from 386 I found a royal face hugger and brought it with me to this planet. It impregnated someone along the way, but instead of killing her it changed her into a queen.' "How is that even possible?" She asks. "We have no clue sea, but any facehuggers from that queen had the same properties, and then I was taken and hived." "Weird, good, but weird." Dauntless let's out a sigh. 'James, I hate to tell you this, but this isn't real.' "What, of course it is." 'No it isn't. Think about it, haven't you noticed the glitches, the weird colours that shouldn't be there?' "You're being ridiculous." She sighs again. 'I'm sorry, but there's no time. I'm really sorry.' I'm completely confused to see until I see her tail rise up from the ground, blade pointed at me. "Dauntless, what are you doing?" 'I'm sorry, but it's the only way.' She looks away as she thrusts her blade in between my ribs, into my heart. I gasp as I realise what's just at happened. Suddenly, panicked voices fill my ears as my life slips away from my grasp. It all goes dark as my heart slows to a stop. "No no no no, he's gonna wake up. Quickly, sedate him." I hear a voice say. "It's too late. Fuck." I hear another. I open my eyes to find myself staring at the roof, with a strange headset on. I frantically pull it off and sit up. I see two guards walk up to me. I jump onto one of them and pound their face in until it's practically mush. I turn to see that the other one has fled the room. I relax as the adrenaline stops pumping around my body. I run through the corridor the man had fled into and keep going straight until I reach the end. There's one door with 'Mr. Weyland. Co founder of Weyland Yutani.' I push the door open to see the man himself sitting in the chair. "It's good to finally meet you. Have a seat." I sit down.


	14. Chapter 14 Weyland

I sit down. "Someone should make this into a story you know, it's very interesting. I assume you have a few questions?" He asks. "How much of that was real. Hell, was any of that real?" He pulls out a knife. As fast as a bullet, I grab him by the shirt and pull him out of the seat. "See for yourself." He flips the knife, showing me the handle. I put him down and grab the knife. I place the blade on the tip of my finger and wince as it pierces my skin. Time seems to stand still as I wait for something… anything to happen. But nothing does. My life is shattered as the realization sets in. 'How much was faked, Was any of this real?' I think. I look at him, rage in my eyes. I punch him in the cheek, breaking his jaw. "That's for controlling my thoughts." "Ya know, you shouldn't always just jump to conclusions. Those knives are acid proof" He mumbles, clutching his jaw. I put my finger on the table and it immediately starts to burn. I sigh in relief. "Oh, thank fuck." I sit down. "So, how much is actually real?" I question. "The bullet that sniper shot was filled with a neurotoxin that only affects Xenomorphs, so when you went down we got quite suspicious. We did a little experimenting and found out all your little secrets." "So if you know everything, can I go to them?" "And what makes you assume you can even leave this room?" "I doubt I would've made it here if you didn't want me to." "Hmm, you're not as dumb as you look. Go ahead, take the third door on the left." "You'll see." "I'm keeping the knife by the way." "Be my guest, I'd say that they've forgotten who your face by now anyway." "How long has it been?" "I'll let her tell you, you mentioned her quite a lot in your sleep." His chuckles send chills down my spine. I turn to leave when he says. "Oh! If you see him, tell Aran I said hello." I stop. "What did I do?" "You threw him in there, that's all I know. They blocked out all the cameras. You'll have to ask him yourself." I walk out of the room filled with even more unanswered questions. I notice a lot more doors now, I walk towards the door Weyland told me to go through, it's marked 'warning! Xenomorph artificial hives. Use extreme caution. Authorized personnel only.' "Authorised huh, I'm pretty sure I'm authorized enough." I mumble as well step through. I find more corridors. "Oh for fuck sake." 'Don't worry, my child. I will guide you to us.' 'Mother?' 'Yes, now take the next left.' I do as I'm instructed. 'There's two doors. Take the left one, then we'll be reunited once more.' I go up to it but it won't budge. 'It won't open.' 'Try again. You will need to force it open.' 'alright then.' I reply. I push some more and it moves a little. I push it as hard as I can and yet nothing more happens. "Come on, work with me." I mutter as I step back and run towards the entrance. It suddenly flies open as I slam into it and I land on my face. It's pitch black, apart from the light coming in the door. My eyes quickly adjust to the darkness, although it doesn't do much to help my situation. I walk through the darkness after closing the door. Even if I can't see them, I know they're all crowding around me, probably to watch as I blunder around in the dark. 'Who is he?'' All of a sudden I'm on my back. 'James!' exclaims Dauntless happily. "Dauntless, lungs." Is all I can manage to say with dauntless' death hug. 'Sorry.' She lets me stand up before hugging me again, not as tight this time. All the whispers go silent. 'It's him, the weakling who got help from the queen. One of her pets.' "You do know that, one. I can hear you. And two. So can she." 'I've missed you so much. I didn't know if it actually worked. I thought you actually died when I…' She trails off. "What do you mean?" 'When you met me in your dream and I… you know.' She says. "Oh. Sure that was only a few minutes ago." I say. 'No it wasn't, it was three months ago.'


	15. Chapter 15 Chipped

'James, it's been three months.' "What. Really, how long have we been here?" 'I don't know, a year maybe?' "Well, shit. Also, why can't I see anything, the last time I was In a hive I could see fine?" 'I don't know, maybe mot- The queen will. Come on.' She takes my hand and guides me through the darkness. After about fifteen minutes, we stop. It feels much more open in here, it's so quiet you can hear my footsteps echoing off the walls of the massive chamber. 'My child, welcome home. You can leave now, Dauntless.' I feel her brush against me as she turns to leave. "Glad to be back with my family." 'You still consider us to be family after everything they put you through?' "What do you mean?" 'All the dreams.' "What dreams?" 'You don't remember?' "No, should I?" 'They must've made you forget, every time they failed.' "Failed what, what's going on?" 'Come here to me.' I walk in the direction that I think Mother is in. She chuckles. 'Other way, sweetheart.' My heart skips a beat. I can't remember the last time anyone called me that. I turn around and walk towards her. "Have you any idea why I can't remember, or see for that matter." 'Yes. They put something in your arm to make you forget. It also dampens your abilities.' "Ok, can you take it out?" 'Possibly, but without anaesthesia, it will hurt a lot.' "I kind of expected that, is there anything you need me to do?" I say, with a sigh. 'Hold out your hand.' She says.' I do as I'm told. She takes it in one of hers. It's strangely warm. She lifts me up and holds me in her arm, she tightly grips my arm with two of the other. 'Prepare.' She says. I feel her claw press against my arm, I take a deep breath, knowing the pain that's just around the corner. 'I don't know exactly where it is, so it might take a while to find it.' I nod. The pain is excruciating as she cuts through my skin, taking her time as to not cause any excessive damage. I'm screaming as she slices through my arm, again and again, trying to find it. 'It's alright, shhh,' She says. Tears flow out of my eyes as she cuts deeper. After about half an hour of this, she stops. 'You did well not to faint, young one. Rest now.' I start to fall into a long needed sleep with the help of mothers' soothing voice. I fall asleep in her arms. I wake up glued to the floor with hive resin. I try to break it but to no avail. I feel a hand on my cheek. 'Hey.' Says Dauntless. "Hey. What happened, why am I stuck to the floor?" 'Well, after you fell asleep, mother called me back in. So, I walk in and see you asleep in her arms. It would have been lovely if you didn't start shaking, I mean really shaking. And then mother just slumped over and dropped you. I didn't know what to do, oh James.' "It's alright, come here." She lays down beside me and runs her hand through my hair. "Do you mind undoing my arms?" 'Yeah, sure.' I feel the resin holding down my left arm shatter. "What about the other?" I ask as I feel her lie down across my chest, I pull my arm over her. It's stiff and sore. 'I'm pretty sure that the resin is the only thing holding your arm together. Mother really did a number on it.' "Any luck?" 'Sadly, no.' "So that was for nothing?" 'Hey don't bitch about it, what's done is done.' "alright. I just really hate getting hurt, it's painful." 'Wow, you really are terrible at humour, aren't you?' "Yep, but I make up for it with all my other qualities." 'Like what?'"My undeniable beauty." 'Okay, I take back what I said about you not being funny.' "Hey." 'Just stating the facts.' "Ya know, if you weren't my girlfriend, I'd probably slap you now." 'I know. In fact, it's the only reason I'm actually your girlfriend.' I chuckle. "That and my pro comedic skills." 'Ok, now that's crazy.' "you're staring at crazy." 'I know that too.' she says, tucking her arms under my back and snuggling up to me. I place my hand on her chest and plant a kiss on her head. I then fall back asleep.

What do you think about me uploading all of the chapters up to where I am in DA over the next week? I'm kinda tired of playing catvh up like i am. bare in mind it's nearly twenty chapters. TBH, I could just spend an afternoon uploading new chapters and I'd be done.


	16. Chapter 16

I wake up a little while later. Dauntless is fast asleep on my chest, I feel around for her arm and pull her a bit further up my chest. She stirs. 'Hey.' She says. "Hey. Sorry for waking you, I didn't realise how light a sleeper you are." I reply quietly. 'It's fine, how was your sleep?' "Good, yours?" 'Same, better now that you're here.' "Everything gets better when I'm here, the comedy, people's moods, uhhh… the comedy." 'And the appreciation of their looks.' "Hey. Only I'm allowed to make jokes about how I look." 'I'm your girlfriend, I can too.' "Fair enough. Now, will you unstick me so I can get up please." 'What about your arm?' "It'll be fine, I'm pretty durable." 'If you say so.' She says, getting up. "Hey." I repeat. I feel the resin shatter as Dauntless pounds away at it. It only takes a moment before I can stand. 'Now, what are we gonna do about the chip in your arm?' "Well, I'm gonna go and ask Weyland nicely if he'll take it out." 'I doubt he will.' "I'll figure something out." 'Be safe. And don't do anything crazy.' "But I like crazy, normal is boring." 'Yes but, normal keeps you alive.' "Ughhhh fine. Now, will you taxi me to the exit." '''Kay.' She grabs my hand and guides me through the darkness. Left. Right. Another right. It went on like this for a while, until she lets go of my hand. 'Bye.' "Where the fuck are you going?" All I hear is a laugh that sends chills down my back. I stand completely still, not daring to move. I feel something brush against my arm, I spin to try to grab it but I'm too slow. I hear Dauntless humming 'Ring a Ring a Rosie', which gives me goosebumps. And then nothing, absolutely no sound. All of a sudden I feel claws dig into my side, not enough to draw blood, but enough to make me jump about thirty feet into the air. "AHHHHH!" Dauntless bursts out laughing. "Jesus Christ Dauntless, you scared the shit out of me." 'No, that was me.' Says a familiar voice. Ares grabs my shoulder. 'Wow, you really jumped.' "Shut up. And where have you been?" 'I've been letting you and D have some alone time. I can't believe you two are actually together.' "Yep, although we mightn't be for long, I might have a heart attack if this continues." 'Probably, but it'll be worth it.' Dauntless manages to say in between laughs. I hear a thud and assume Dauntless is now crippled from laughter. I start laughing too. And eventually so does Ares. I too fall over from lack of air. "Oh, fuckin' hell. I'm way too easily amused." I say after managing to stand up. "Come on D, let's get going." 'Hang on.' "Are you still on the floor?" 'Yep.' "Well, come on. I can't get there by myself." 'Where are you going?' Ask Ares. "The exit." 'Can't you just go yourself.' "I can't see." 'WAIT WHAT!? You're blind!?' "Only in darkness. They put a chip in my arm and it dampens my abilities. So, I'm on the way to getting it out." 'They said they'd take it out?' "No, I'm just gonna ask nicely." 'Good luck with that.' "Thanks." 'Right, can we go?' Asks Dauntless, who has regained the ability to stand. "Sure, see ya around." I say to Ares. 'See ya.' Dauntless takes my hand and guides towards the exit, it takes us another while to reach it. 'Are you sure that you want to go through with this?' Asks Dauntless. "Yes." 'Okay, good luck.' She says pulling me in for a quick hug. I give her a squeeze and walk through the door.


	17. Chapter 17 A Friend

I forgot how white it is here, in fact, the only thing that isn't white is the military clothing, which is what I'm dressed in. I retrace my steps from when I arrived from Weylands' office. I reach for the handle when I arrive but decide against it and I knock first. "Come in." I pull open the door and walk through. "Ah James. What can I do for you?" He asks. "You could, for one, tell me why you needed to dampen my abilities?" "Oh, so you found out about the chip. To be completely honest, I was bored. I assume you want to get it removed?" "Exactly." "Of course." "Huh, I didn't think it would be that easy." "If you help me with something." "Oh, that makes more sense." "Will you help me with some experiments?" "I'm the subject?" "I prefer patient." "But I'm not sick." "Hmm, fair enough. All I want to do so stick some electrodes to you." "Ok? But you're taking the chip out first." "No. We're gonna see the changes that happen when we remove it." "Oh. Ok, but if you keep it in, I'm gonna kill you." "Seems fair. This way please." I follow him out of his room and down the corridor. "So, you like this." He asks "Define this?" "Your situation, the hive." "Well they're not the most ideal, considering that my family thinks I'm dead and I had to run out on my mum." "You did?" He asks as we walk through a door." "You didn't know." "Nah, we had no idea you were involved then. "Oh, well yeah and it crushed me." "I'd be worried if it didn't." "How's Aran?" "I didn't ask, I was too busy screaming in pain." "Why?" "How do you think I found out about the chip?" "Ah." "Here, I'll show you the damage." I pull up my sleeve to show my arm, still crusted with resin and oozing blood slightly. "Ouch." "Yep, believe it or not, I didn't faint until after." "Hmm, impressive. Ah, here we are." We stop at a door with an expensive looking chair in the middle of it. "Was that expensive?" "Yes, one of the most expensive thing here. Why do you ask?" "If we have to break out, I'm wrecking that first." "Of course, this is one of our labs with little funding." "Is that why everything is white?" He chuckles. "No. That's to make it easier on our cleaners, they're quite slow. Come on, I assume you want this to be done with." I nod. He puts his keycard into the door and it slides open smoothly. We step through. "Sit on the chair please." I do as I'm told, it's quite comfy. He walk up to me. "I want to do this myself." He attaches wires to my head and a heart monitor to my finger. "Now, just try to relax." "Shouldn't be hard." I reply. He smirks as he walks into the control room. I sit back and close my eyes. The machine starts whirring and my mind starts to wander. For some unknown reason, I'm drawn to a certain image. It's foggy, as if it's old and unimportant, but feels recent and betraying. All of a sudden, for a split second, it comes into view. I'm in a containment room with Dauntless standing over me, and there's blood everywhere. I open my eyes and sit up. Everyone is staring at me from the control room, fascinated. Weyland snaps out of his trance and enters the testing chamber. "Well that was sudden, and interesting." He says while taking off the wires from my head. "Did you see what I saw?" "Yes and more, things you can only see with your eyes open." I'm confused. "We did also see what you saw, and a bit more as well. It wasn't pretty." I put my hand to my injured arm, it feels… Ceramic. I look down to see that my arm has turned completely black. I smile a small bit at this. "We turned it off for five seconds." One of the scientists says. "We need to take samples." "Touch me, and you won't be having any kids." He steps back a little. "I don't doubt you." Says Weyland. "Now. Let's get that chip out." I follow him out the door we came through and across the hall. "The reason you couldn't get it out is because it's spread across your whole arm." We enter an operation room across the hall, it's a little bigger than your average containment cell, but only a little. There's one bed in the middle of the room, with a few mechanical arms and two surgeons standing beside the bed. "Ah so this is our patient." "I prefer operationee. Even though it's not a word. Since I'm not sick." I say. "I told you." Says the second one. "I'm Sarah, and this is Dave." "Huh, nice to meet you, I assume you know who I am." "Yes. And I believe we're taking out a micro monitoring chip today?" "Yes." Says Weyland abruptly." "Awesome. Now, lie down here plz and we'll begin." I do as I'm told. "Now, I'm gonna be operating the machinery, but blame this guy here if anything goes wrong." Says Sarah, pointing at Dave. "Will do." "Before you begin, you'll need to be quick." Comments Weyland. "And why is that?" Questions Dave. "I can answer that." I pull up my sleeve to this them my pure black skin. They stare at my arm in amazement. "I can see why you wanted to do this using the Xeno equipment, but why in here?" Asks Sarah. "I can answer that too." I say picking up a scalpel and poking my hand with it. My blood slowly runs down to my sleeve, which immediately burns. "Wha- wh- whaaaaat?" They both say. "That's why." Says Weyland after a minute of the two surgeons gawking at me. "Let's just get this done please." I say, getting impatient. "Right sorry, we're supposed to be professionals." Says Dave, who walks over and preps the machinery. "Hey Sarah, wake up." He then says, snapping his finger in front of her face. She comes back from whatever world she was in and walks over to the control panel. "Hang on wait, that doesn't explain why we have to be quick." Says Sarah. "No, but this does." I say. "I have super healing." She takes another look at my arm to see that the cut has closed. "There's not even a scar." She says, gawking again. "Hello, getting a little impatient here." I say, a bit annoyed. "Sorry, you have to tell me how this happened some day." "You'll have a lot of time to do that, he's staying in your room." "Noice." She says. "You have a strange vocabulary." I say. "And you have a big one." She turns on the computer and types a few things into it. A few moments later the machines whirr to life. A little while into the operation, I notice that Sarah has a look of almost complete and utter concentration on her face. The look of a gamer in its' natural habitat. "What're ya playin'?" I ask her. She looks up. "Nothing." She blurts out. "I call bull." I reply. "Space Invaders." "Ooh retro." I say. "Yep, I don't even need to be here, it's completely automated." "Not too bad." "Oh shut up and kiss already." Shouts Dave, who has a smirk on his face. We both shoot him a death look that would burn into your soul, and deeper. "I may be getting a microchip taken out of my arm, but I'll still slap you." I say. "Okay, just seems like you two are perfect for each other." "Maybe, if so we'll have loads to do later then." I struggle to hold back a laugh, for the sake of maturity. Nothing else really happens until after the operation finishes and I'm in bed in sarahs' room. My mind drifts back to that image I had in the chair, no not an image, a memory. I can feel pain all down my chest. I look down to see that it's been torn open. I realise that the blood on the walls is mine. I look back up to see Dauntless standing over me, with my heart In her hands.


	18. Chapter 18 Memories

I look back up to see Dauntless standing over me, with my heart In her hands. She slowly starts to squeeze. I watch, powerless as she crushes my heart, literally in her hands. I watch her devour my organs as my life slowly fades. I sit up suddenly, waking Sarah too. I'm sweating and breathing really heavy and I don't know what I just saw, no remembered. "Hey, what's wrong are you alright." She asks. "No. In no way am I alright." "Hang on let me turn on the light." She gets up and walks over to the door, it appears that my abilities have come back. She turns on the light, which blinds me for a brief moment and then walks back over to the bed. She puts her hands on my shoulders. "What happened?" She asks. "I-I-I saw Dauntless." "Wait, do you mean-" "yes that Dauntless. She was standing there. I-I saw her crush my heart, literally crush it. And then she ate me alive." "Wait, what do you mean? Start from the start." "Ok. I know about you, that you're her host. I was hived but this hive is different. Instead of killing me I became one of them. That's why I have my abilities." "I prefer the term 'surrogate mother' but go on." "Ok. I met Dauntless a while after I changed, and then Weyland Yutani attacked and as far as I know, very few escaped, me and her included. We hid and waited and now we're in a relationship. Then we got captured a while later." "Ok." "They put me through all these simulations and in one of them, Dauntless kills and eats me. I remembered that, I could feel it happen." I feel my eyes start to tear up as the rush of emotions hit me. Fear. Anger. Confusion. And in a moment I burst out crying. "Hey hey, it's alright, it was just a dream." "No, it was a memory, I experienced this." I continuously run my hands through my hair. I get up and walk around the room, eventually ending up on a bean bag in the corner. Sarah comes over and wraps her arms around me. "It's alright, I'm here." She lays her head on my shoulder and squeezes me gently. "Ya know, that I was only thirteen, before I was taken. That was about a year and a half ago, I think." "It's okay. You're safe here. Let's go back to bed." She helps me up and brings me to the bed. I lie down and just as she would, she wraps her arms around me. I couldn't get any more sleep that night, not that I needed it any more. It turns out

That it's Tuesday the 19th of September 2057, a few days before my birthday. I decide to stay up here for the rest of the week, doing nothing but lie in bed and stare at the wall. I don't know what to believe at this point. More and more memories come back, some good. Some bad. And then there's the nightmares. Like my first memory, in one I torture and kill my entire family and in another I murder my town because I get bored. If it wasn't for Sarah, I would already be on a cold slab in the morgue with a bullet in my brain. That Saturday she tells me "you should go back to her, she's missing you." "I know, but I don't know what I'll do. I love her and I hate her at the same time. It's tearing me apart." "It would to anyone, but you need this. And I don't want to take you from her, even though we're practically the same." "I just, don't know what to do, what to believe." "I know, if it helps, I'll go with you. It's about time I see her again." "Really?" "Yeah." "Thanks, can we get something to eat first?" "Of course, what would you like?" "Raw meat, it's the only thing I eat." She wrinkles her nose in disgust. "Ewww." "I do what I need to. It's not that bad actually." "Fine. Just don't spill any on my sheets, or else you're cleaning it up." "I won't." "You better not." She exits for a while, and comes back in to see me in the middle of a panic attack. The next thing I know is that she's standing in front of me. "Hey. Hey. Hey. What's wrong. What happened." She asks? "I-I-I-I don't know, I'm just sitting here and all of a sudden I remember her eating me." I say shakily. "Hey. It's alright, nothing happened, it was a simulation. It's artificial. She didn't do that." This calms me down a small bit, we've become very experienced in these situations over the past few days. "I know." "Just take deep breaths. It's alright, you're fine." I take a few deep breaths and slowly start to calm down. I sigh. "Thanks. You made me drop our food though." "Mine's still edible." I think she throws up a little in her mouth. "Hey, when you eat raw rabbit for a few weeks, you get used to it." "Please stop." "Okay." She walks over to the tray and picks them up. "Huh, my tray landed upright, no such luck with yours though." "Meh, I don't care." She walks over and I grab my plate off her and scoff down my food. I didn't realise how hungry I was. I hadn't eaten since I woke up. Later that afternoon we head to the hive. As we near the door I start to get flashbacks to that dream. They get worse the closer we get. I stop feet away from the door, clutching my chest. "Singin' the national anthem there. Are we?" Says Sarah. This makes me chuckle. "Apparently so." I let go of my chest. I steel myself and walk up to the door. My hand is shaking as I open it. I walk through to see a group of about ten Xenomorphs standing there. My heart starts to pound as if it actually wants to jump out and run away. My eyes dart back and forth between them. "Hey, you alright?" Asks Sarah. I see Dauntless walk through from behind them. 'James! You're back.' She exclaims. She speed walks up and I take a step back. 'What's wrong?' She notices Sarah behind me. 'Sarah!' She runs up and barrels right into her, knocking her over. "Dauntless. Lungs." She says. 'Sorry.' She lets her stand before hugging her again. 'Where have you been?' Asks Dauntless. "Here and there, mainly here though." She replies. "You might wanna take it slow with James." 'Why?' "He's been through a lot this week, he remembers the simulations they put him through. And in one of them, , you rip out his heart and eat him as he dies." She says quietly. Dauntless stands there for a moment, unsure of what to do next. She turns to me. 'I'm so sorry.' "I-It's okay Dauntless. It wasn't really you." 'I know, but it felt like me.' "Yeah." 'Do you want to go and see the queen? I'm sure she'll be glad to see you.' She says to both me and Sarah. "Yeah that sounds good, it's really nice to see you again." Replies Sarah. We walk through the maze that is a hive until we're outside the queens' chamber. I have more flashbacks, new ones this time. Of the queen ripping each of my family members in half while I was stuck to the wall, helpless. Sarah knows the face that I get when this happens. "Hey, what was it this time? Was it Dauntless? Or something else?" She asks. "Something new, it was bad. I think I need to sit down for a minute." I lean against the wall, slowly sinking to the floor. "What was it?" Asks Sarah , who is kneeling beside me. "The-The queen, ripping my family apart while I was stuck to the wall." I say. "Hey it's okay, it wasn't real. It was a simulation. A figment of someone's twisted imagination." "I know." She stands up and walks over to Dauntless. 'Wow, is this what he sees?' She asks her. "Yeah, one of many." 'Fuck, what did they put him through?' "Something bad. And a part of me thinks that whatever they were trying to do, has worked." They both look at me, I smile weakly and get up. I take deep breaths and walk up to them. "Me too." Is all I say as I walk past them into the queens' chamber. 'My child, welcome back.' She says. "H-hi." 'My poor young one, what have they put you through. Sit down.' Her voice feels reassuring and loving yet deceiving and deadly. I do as I'm told though. 'I can't even begin to tell you how sorry I am for you.' "Thank you. To be honest, I'm surprised that I haven't freaked out yet." I say with a chuckle. Dauntless and Sarah sit down either side of me. I shuffle a little closer to Sarah. 'Sarah, welcome.' "It's good to be back.' We sit and talk for a while, well, the queen and Sarah talk, I just sit there and listen. After a while, we leave and lie down in a nearby chamber. I lie down in the corner and Dauntless comes over to me, straight away, I sit up. 'Hey.' She says. "Hi." I reply. I suddenly get the urge to rip her throat out, but I quickly push it aside. 'If you don't mind me asking, what exactly did you see? Of me.' "I-I saw you, ripping out my heart, crushing it and then eating my organs while I die." 'Oh, I'm so sorry.' "Are you? Are you really?" She's clearly hurt by this. I sigh. "I'm sorry, it's hard for me to keep it together sometimes." 'Hey, I understand.' "I've just had so many memories of either me killing my family or watching them die." 'I can't even imagine what that must feel like.' "Terrible. The same way that I love you and hate you, admire you and despise you, fear you and not, all at the same time." 'I. I don't know what to say.' "It's okay, I just want whoever did this to me to die a slow and painful death." 'Me too. But before that, I want you to get better.' "So do I." 'Get some sleep, you've had a helluva day.' "Amen to that." I say. I lie back down and quickly fall asleep.


	19. Chapter 19 Commitment

I wake up to Dauntless standing over me, I try to struggle but I'm pinned down. I look around to see Sarah lying face down in her own blood, dead. I look back at Dauntless. She reaches down and puts a hand over my mouth. The other one tightens around my throat, then is pulled back. As I suffocate in my own blood, I hear her say 'you mean nothing to me.' She gets up and walks away. I scream as I wake, waking up the others as well. I crawl backwards until my back hits the wall and bring my knees up to my face. They both rush to me, Dauntless getting there first. She kneels down beside me. "NO. GET AWAY!" I scream at her. She's extremely hurt at this, but does back up. Sarah is then beside me. "Hey. Hey. Hey. What's wrong? What happened?" She asks. "I-I had a dream, a nightmare where Dauntless kills you and then rips my throat out." "Hey, it's okay, it was just a dream, caused by that sick psycho who put you through those simulations." "I know, but that's not the worst part, as I die, she says that I was never meant anything to her." "Hey, that's not true." She says. "How do you know?" "Because you mean something to me, and me and Dauntless are practically the same." This calms me down a bit. "I suppose." "Okay, just breath." I take deep, slow breaths, which calms me down fully after a moment. Once I'm sure I'm okay, I go to Dauntless, who has retreated to a corner of her own. "Hey." I say. She doesn't reply, or look my way. I sit down beside her. "I'm sorry for what I said." 'Is that what you think?' "What do you mean?" 'About what you mean to me?' "Of course not." 'Are you sure.' "Yes. No, I don't know." 'How can you not know?' "Because I don't." 'What does that mean?' "It means I don't know. Do you know what it's like to want to be with someone forever, but want to kill them at the same time? That's what I'm feeling. It's tearing me apart every second, and I need your help, and no matter what I say, please be there?" 'You're right, I don't know how it feels. But I'm not sure if I will be able to do that James.' "Please, at this moment, as much as I regret saying this, you're my biggest fear. That's why I need you to help me. To confront this fear. Please. I want to be with you, but if you don't help me, I can't." 'How do you know that I want to be with you still?' She asks, anger creeping into her voice. "Because I mean something to you. And like Sarah said, I mean something to her too. And you don't want your 'surrogate mother' taking your boy now do ya?" I feel her smile at this. 'No, I don't.' "So you'll help me?" 'Yes.' Relief floods my body. "Thank you, I mean that." Hesitantly, against every fiber of my body, I lean in and plant a gentle kiss in her cheek. I lie down and fall back to sleep, with Dauntless nearby. It's not was it was, but is close enough. A step in the right direction.

Sorry that this one is really long but I was on a roll. I know that a lot happens in this so I might split it into two different parts. But three chapters in one day. If that's not impressive, I don't know what is.


	20. Chapter 20 Darkness

*One month and twelve days later*  
"The drums. The drums of change, welcome the drums. The drums are salvation." Says an unknown voice in the darkness, which I'm suspended in. This voice is all I can hear. Alongside drums which sound strangely satisfying. A constant 'Dum Dum Dum Dum. Dum Dum Dum Dum. Dum Dum Dum Dum.' Over and over again, but I don't get sick of it, or annoyed. Just. Calm. "Follow the drums. The drums will lead you to us. Your saviours. Come my brother, follow." I step forward, even though I don't move. I walk towards the voice and as I do, the drums get louder. "James come back! James!" I hear. A different voice, a familiar one. Reminding me of love. Hatred. Mystery. Pain. Among others. "Who was that?" I call into the darkness. "That was no one, the enemy." The darkness replies. I decide that's its' name. "But why is it familiar, why do I love this voice then? If it's the enemy." I reply. "No no no no no. Please come back. James!" I hear the second voice again. "Quickly my brother, this way. Towards the drums." Says the darkness. It's so tempting. "What are the drums?" "They are change. Salvation." "That's not the answer I want. Are these drums death?" "JAMES PLEASE COME BACK!" I hear, screamed into my mind. "Who is that?" I ask. "She is the enemy, the past." The darkness replies. "What's it's name?" "She's the enemy. Quickly now, don't waste time. This way, towards the drums." "What. Is. Her. Name?" I ask. "SHE IS THE ENEMY!" "Yours or mine?" "Both, but not." I'm a bit confused now. "Then tell me, what is her name?" The darkness sighs. "Dauntless." The next thing I know, I'm sitting up in the hive with Sarah standing near and Dauntless grabbing my shoulders. 'James!' Dauntless says. "What happened?" I ask. I breath in but is accompanied with extreme pain. "What? How're you alive?" Asks Sarah, walking over. 'Are you alright?' "No. my chest feels like someone's thrown a tree trunk at it and my head feels as if someone got a jackhammer, put a sonic screwdriver in it and slammed it into my head." 'A what?' "What? You've never seen Doctor who?" I ask. 'Seen what?' I look at Sarah. "Have you?" "Yeah." She replies. "And you didn't show Dauntless! I'm ashamed." 'Show me what?' "A TV show." "Oh shush. I'm more interested in how you're alive." "Why? What happened?" 'You're heart stopped.' Says Dauntless. "My heartbeat is really low. You're only realising this now?" "We know that. But you're heart had absolutely no beat." "What? For how long?" "About five minutes." "But I should have serious brain damage. I shouldn't be alive." 'I'm not complaining.' "Neither am I. But I'm pretty sure that's impossible." I say. "It is. You should be brain dead." "No change there then." I say with a pained chuckle. "Maybe the queen will know. Because that's outside of our boundaries of science." Suggests Sarah. 'Maybe. Come on. Are you alright to stand?' "No. But that's never stopped me before." I reply. I get up and manage to stand, for a total of three seconds. Both Dauntless and Sarah catch me before I hit the ground. "Careful." Says Sarah. We make our way to the queens' chamber. By the time we get there I'm able to stand on my own. 'My children, Sarah. Welcome.' 'Hello.' Dauntless says. "hi." Sarah and I say. 'What bothers you?' The queen asks me. "Well, I died." 'I don't understand.' "My heart wasn't beating for about five minutes and all I have is a horrible pain in my chest and one helluva headache." 'Well. That's interesting.' "Our thoughts exactly. Replies Sarah. The queen notices something and I feel her fear. 'Leave us, all except James.' She says, failing to keep calm. "See ya later." I say to the others. "Bye." They both reply in unison. After they leave the queen suddenly grabs me. 'Where. Did you hear. That rhythm.' She asks. Her voice filled to the brim with fear and anger. "What rhythm?" 'The one you're doing right now.' I hadn't noticed until now that I was tapping my legs in the exact same rhythm that was in my dream. "I don't know. Why?" 'Tell me this. What's the first word that pops into your head when you think of the words 'the drums'? Just those words and nothing else.' I pause and think. "Change. No salvation. A bit of both. Why?" 'N-nothing. I just need time to think. You can go now.' "Are you alright?" 'I'm fine. Just go.' "Are you sure? You seem a bit on edge." 'I. Said. Get. OUT!' "Okay. Sorry." 'I'm sorry my child. It's just that I feel something is wrong.' "It's alright mother." I feel her smile a bit. 'Run along now.' As I leave, Sarah and Dauntless jog up to me. 'Hey. What happened?' "Well. She got quite pissed off." 'We heard. What was that about?' "I don't know. Something about a rhythm and drums." Sarah and Dauntless share a look. "What?" 'It's nothing. It can't be.' "Can't be what?" I ask, curious now. "Come on. You need rest." Says Sarah. "No. I need food. And an answer." 'No you don't. It's best if you're kept in the dark for the moment.' I hear mother say. 'Had I called her mother back there?' I think to myself. "All right then. for now, all you need is food. So let's go." Sarah says after we retreated back to the room we were in when I woke. "Where are we going?" I ask. "Outside for some fresh air. Also it'd be nice to go and see my friends again." "We've only been in here for all of two days." 'She's clingy.' Dauntless says. "I know, I'm in a relationship high what's practically her clone. Come to think of it, why does this shit always have to happen to me." "No one knows. I'm just glad you're okay." Comments Sarah as she walks up to me from behind and puts her chin on my shoulder. This earns a stern look from Dauntless. "Sorry." She says. She removes her shoulder and I smirk a little. 'What?' Asks Dauntless. "Nothing. I just never thought that I would have two women fighting over me." I answer.'We're not fighting.' "Not yet. But soon you two will be killing each other to be with me. Don't worry, it always happens. I am incredibly handsome after all." They bot hsnigger. "Where'd you pull that from. Your arse?" Laughs Sarah. "Probably. Now, let's grab something to eat." I reply. 'Don't be long.' "We won't, love." We head towards the exit. "What was that then?" Asks Sarah after a while. "What was what?" "We won't 'love." I realise what I said. "Huh. I have no idea. I said 'mother' as well earlier." "You're getting better then? The dreams?" "I suppose so. I still remember them, they're all still there. They just seem more dream like." "That's good. I'm glad." "You're not the only one." A thought pops into my head. "Is it possible that someone altered them?" I inquire. "Why do you ask?" Replies Sarah. "Well. They're so much more like my dreams. It's like my memories have completely changed." "Hmm. Not likely. They'd need a link to do that." "So it is possible?" "Well. Yes." "Hmm. Could you do me a favour?" I ask. "What?" "Could you have a look at my back? It's been feeling a bit weird for a while. Like something's moving that's not supposed to be there. And it feels different in places." "Sure." She replies. The thought seems to drift out of my mind like it wasn't even there. "Ya know what. Forget it." "Really?" "Yeah. It's probably nothing." "All right then, suit yourself." She replies.


	21. Chapter 21 Parasite

Wow. I didn't expect to get this far. I thought that it would've ended by now. I guess I was wrong. Enjoy!

We reach the exit and head to the mess hall. We find Dave and Weyland there. "James, good to see you." Says Weyland happily. "Sarah." Exclaims Dave. She walks up to him and gives him a hug. "Where have you been?" He asks. "Been visiting Dauntless. How're you?" "I'm grand. I was worried, I heard you went in but that was it." "Ah, I'm fine. Besides, everyone knows I'm a badass." She replies. I snigger and she punches my shoulder, not not softly either. Which doesn't end well for her. "Oww! Damn, what are you made of, steel?" "just flesh and super strong bone. What? I didn't mention that." "Damn. What else are ya hidin' from us huh? Acid breath? Flamethrower hands?" "Wow. I think you've played too many video games. Just a bit." "You should see my collection. I have every popular game ever made." "Ok. Maybe not a bit." "Careful. That's a dangerous conversation." Says Dave. "Meh. I've had more dangerous  
conversations." I reply. "I really doubt that." Chuckles Dave. "Anyways, how've you been James?" asks Weyland. "I've been good. Been a bit ill lately though." "You'll shake it off. I have some work I need to get done so I'm going to go. I'll talk to you again later." He leaves after patting me on the shoulder. Sarah and Dave are chatting away so I grab some food. As I'm walking back I notice something in my hand. I look closely at it to find that it's a little lump, moving away under my skin. It stops. The lump starts to ripple as if whatever's under my skin is trying to burst out. It suddenly pops and a small creature emerges. I jump and drop my tray as I pull it out of my hand. I then stomp on it. "The fuck?." I mutter, scared. No one seems to care about the racket I just made. "Hey. You alright?" Asks Sarah. "Huh? no, Something just came out of my hand." "What? Let me see." She shouts.I show her my hand to see nothing wrong. Not even a mark. "What?" I say. All of a sudden my head is throbbing and before I know it, I'm on my knees with my hands on my head, screaming. Sarah and Dave are at my side in seconds, everyone else backs away. "James? James what's wrong?" Asks Sarah worriedly. "My head. It hurts." I say in between screams. I'm on my back. "Okay, James. I need you to take your hands away from your head so I can examine you." "It. Hurts." "I know, but I need to examine you to know what's going on." I pull my hands down from my head. "Thank you." She examines my head, moving it from side to side. Up and down. "Okay, James. I'm gonna administer an anaesthetic for the pain. See you in a while." She says as she pulls a needle out of somewhere I couldn't see and jabs it into my neck. Darkness surrounds me. 'Dum Dum Dum Dum. Dum Dum Dum Dum.' I hear in my sleep. "Ah, you're back. Where've you been?" The Darkness asks. "Life." I respond. "Okay." It says cheerily. It creeps me out a little. "Who are you?" I ask. "I am salvation. The path to enlightenment. I am change." "Is it you who's messing with my head?" "Yes. How long have you known?" "It was a hunch. Why did you?" "You are special James. And I wanted you to be by my side when the time came." "What time?" "You'll know soon enough. For now though, you need to rest. That hallucinogen causes one hell of a headache." "Wait, that was you? Who are you? What do you want?" I shout. "All in good time. Goodbye James." It chuckles as I feel it fade from my head.

Sorry that it's a bit short. I'm staying with some relatives in England and I didn't get any time to write. Sorry! Anyway, hope you enjoyed!


	22. Chapter 22 Scars

I wake up in a hospital bed in the infirmary and Sarah's there. She notices I've woken. "Hey. You alright?" She asks. "Yeah. What happened after you put me under?" "Not much. I administered the anaesthetic and brought you here. Although, no one would help me apart from Dave. I think they know what you are." "Amazing?" I chuckle. "No, the other thing." "Sexy?" "The other, other thing." She says, laughing. I try to sit up but find that I'm strapped to the bed. "What's this?" I ask. "Oh. You were moving around pretty violently so I strapped you down." "Why?" "Did you want to fall off the bed?" "Maybe I did. These beds are pretty uncomfortable." "Hah, maybe. Anyway, you should stay here and rest where I can keep an eye on you." "Fine." I reply. "I've been meaning to ask you, how you can see in the hive." "When dauntless was… inside me, I gained some of their traits like you, but not as much." "Oh. Hang on, how do you know what happened to me?" "Dauntless filled me in." "Ah. What other traits did you gain?" "Eternal fitness, which is a lifesaver, and a small immunity to acids." "Not too bad. Now undo these straps please, I want to sit up." "Okay." She replies. She walks over and undos the straps around my wrists and I sit up. After she undid the ones at my ankles, I get off the bed. "Hey, I thought you just wanted to sit up." She says, annoyed. "Yeah well I'm a lying little fuck, so deal with it. Pass me my shirt please." "No. Get it yourself." I walk over and she slaps me across the head." "Ow!" "You may be an adult, but no one speaks to me like that." "Fair enough. 'Scuse me" I say as I reach across her for my shirt. "What are those?" She asks. "What are what?" "Those scars on your back." "What scars?" "Here, turn around. I want to have a look." I sit on the bed and turn my back to her. She sits down too. She lightly feels the scars. "James." "Hmm?" "Your parents didn't… well." "What? Beat me? Jesus no. I have absolutely no idea where these came from."  
*no one beat me. Just in case that's what you're thinking.*  
"it looks like to me, that these scars are surgical in origin." She pushes gently on one of them. "MMM H-hmmm h-h-hmmm. Don't do that again please." "Did that hurt?" She asks. "No, it tickled." "I'm sorry but I'm gonna have to press down on them a bit more. I think I felt something move." "Fine. Just do it quickly." I grumble. She starts to press down on the scars again. It's agonisingly painful. After a minute or two, she stops. "There's definitely something moving around under there. Just give me a second while I check your records." She says before walking off. She comes back a few minutes later. "Nope. Nothing on record. And it definitely wasn't Weyland who put these in. He would at least have it catalogued under something." "Then who was it?" "I don't know. Nevertheless, I'm going to remove them. They shouldn't be there." All of a sudden, I'm struck with overwhelming fear. "I-I-I don't think you should do that." I tremble. "Why not?" "I-I don't know. Just don't." I say. Struggling to keep fear from seeping into my voice. "I don't know. They shouldn't be in there." "Please don't." "It's not like you're gonna be awake." Sarah replies, standing up and going to the table, where an anaesthetic lies. I watch as she picks it up and walks towards me. "Don't." I say. "It's fine, it won't hurt." She continues towards me. "DON'T!" I shout with fear finally sinking its teeth into my voicebox. "Okay okay. James, do you remember when you asked me if people can alter your memories?" She puts down the needle which calms me down. "Yes." I reply. "If they have the connection, they can also alter your emotions."she explains. "Okay. So?" "To establish this connection, they will need to have you plugged into a machine. Or put the machine into your back in key positions." "And you think they've done this to me? Whoever 'they' are?" She nods. All of a sudden, I'm furious. "That's ridiculous. Why would 'they' do that? It makes no sense, Sarah. None." I spit. "James. I think they're doing it now." "What?" "You were fine. Then you were terrified of being put under. And now you're fuming." I see the sense in this. "Ok. But, no, you are not doing this. No. Way." I say sternly. "Ok. Come on. Let's go back to the hive then." I'm surprised she's given up so quickly. I put on my shirt and motion for her to go first. "Ladies first." I say. She starts to walk ahead but turns and puts her hand on my shoulder. "Are you sure you don't want me to do this?" "Yes." "Okay then. Sorry about this." Before I can react, I feel a pinprick in my neck and the room starts to go dark. "Oh, you bitchsssshhhh-" I slur. She catches me as I fall and lays me on the bed. The room then goes dark.


	23. Chapter 23 Ticklish

I felt so childish while I was writing this. hope you enjoy!!

now, some people are... displeased with how these chapters are all mushed together. I wrote these in my phone so i didn't put any chapters in. I WILL go back and redo them and add paragraphs after I've finished writing this.

I wake to the beeping of a heart monitor with a strange feeling in my back, like something was being pushed through my skin but it didn't hurt. "I just can't get a hold of it. As soon as I start to make any sort of progress, it drives itself deeper into his back. Oh? Hang on I think I've got it." Says voice I can't quite make out but sounds familiar. I feel something moving around in my back. It suddenly gets pulled away but not without clinging to my flesh. After a moment it gets ripped out, but not before the anaesthetic fully wears off. I manage not to scream my lungs out by biting into the pillow I'm face down in. My hands clench around the frame, leaving a dent. "Oh shit, I think he felt that." I hear the voice again, much clearer, it sounds like Sarahs'. "Yep, definitely felt it." I say. "Quick, get some more anaesthetic. I have some local stuff but that's it." She says to someone I can't see. "Sorry for putting you under like that, but I was definitely on the right track. This tech's really high end stuff. Definitely not Weylands' people who put this in. They seemed to do it in a hurry. Now, this won't hurt." "You're lying." I reply. "Much." Sarah have something into the incision in my back, making me whimper in pain for a moment until it kicks in. "You could've at least gave me enough anaesthetic to keep me under." "I did. But I didn't realise that these things would counteract it until later on, so I waited to see if you would wake up." She explains. "Gee thanks." "That shit's expensive. I can't go around wasting it." "I see you've tied me up again." "I had to. In case you made a run for it." "And how would I do that if I was asleep?" I ask. "Like I said, these things are high end." "Huh. I gotta admit, I'm kinda impressed now." "I'm not. These things are ridiculously difficult to remove." "Yeah, I heard." "Ah. Thank you Dave." "You're in on this too?" "Well, I wasn't just gonna stand there and let poor, defenceless James suffer now was I? And I was also gonna do something about that face. Blech!" He jokes. "What? So you could feel better at the fact that your face looks like someone got Sid the Sloths' and slid it across the ground?" I counter. "Oooooh, shit sonnnn." Sarah says. "Now. I'm gonna put you back under for the rest of the operation." "That's fine by me." I see Sarah change the bag on the stand in the corner of my eye and after a moment I fall asleep. I wake up some time later in a different bed feeling quite relieved. And this time I'm not restrained. "Ah. You're awake, I think I may have used a little too much anaesthetic." Says Sarah while walking through the closed curtain. "Hey. How long have I been asleep?" I ask. "Ehh… don't freak out, but two days." "JESUS!" "I said not to freak out!" "This isn't me being freaked out. It's just that, since my rebirth I've been knocked out, anaesthetised and practically hibernated, more than ever in my life. And that's saying something, especially considering that I've never had anaesthetic before." She giggles. This makes me laugh. "Now. Let me have a look at your back, I have a theory." She says. I sit up and turn my back towards her. She lifts up the gown thing I have on. "Aha! Knew it. It seems that those things in your back locally dampened your abilities. As well as being illegal." "Damn. So no more scars?" "Nope. Oh hang on, what's that on your elbow?" She says, dropping my shirt. I look at it remembering where I got that. "Ah. That was from a bad idea at a birthday party six years ago now?" "What happened?" "Well, they own a farm and we decided to play hide and seek in the dark. And I mean pitch black. And me, being the genius I am, decided to go up to the shed." "And…?" "And I was found. I walked away and tripped over some wire that was on the floor and got a rock in my elbow. Strange that it didn't disappear, with the no there ones." "Other ones?" "I had a few more from other great ideas." I explain. She nods. "I was such a stupid child." I chuckle. "Not much has changed then." Says Sarah, grabbing my shoulders. "Now let's get back to Dauntless. I filled her in but nonetheless, she's worried. " "No complaints here." I say as I follow her out after getting changed. We head back to the hive but not before grabbing a bite to eat at the canteen. We find Dauntless a few minutes inside the entrance of the hive. 'James.' She says cheerily. She jogs over and gives me a hug. "Hey dauntless, how've you been?" I ask. 'I've been bored. No one to scare and make fun of. The only person who won't get offended is you.' "That's me." I joke. "Are you hungry?" 'A bit, why?' "Because it sneaked this out of the canteen." I say pull a colossal steak out from behind my back. Her mouth instantly starts to water. "Oh my god, it's huge!' She says. I snigger. All she does is stare at me. 'Shut up.' She says, turning her attention back to the steak. She takes it out of my hands and devours it. 'It's been so long since I tasted proper meat. Especially steak!' "Glad you liked it. It was a pain to get, I had to sneak back behind the counter and grab it. There's like fifteen cooks back there." 'Well, thank you. I appreciate it.' "You better. Or else, no more steaks for you." I say jokingly, tapping her where I assume her nose would be. 'How's your back?' She asks. "Good. Not as uncomfortable anymore. I also found this." I say pointing to the scar on my elbow. "Which I somehow didn't notice it." 'I don't know how you didn't either.' "You knew?" I ask, a bit surprised. 'You didn't know about the fact that no matter what, you had a reminder of your old life?' "No. I feel a bit stupid now, thanks." 'You don't need my help to feel like that. Or anyones' for that matter. Anyways, did no one explain that to you?' "I'll get you back for that remark later and no, people have a habit of not explaining things to me." 'Wow, it's like one of the first things I'd explain to someone.' "So why didn't you explain it to me?" I ask, folding my arms. 'Ares said he'd do it.' "Ya see, that's where you went wrong. Never trust a man with something like that. Well, at least not anyone who's my friend." "Well, why not." "Because if you're my friend, then you're a bit of an ass. Apart from the odd exception." "So who's the exception here?" Asks Sarah, who I forgot was here. "Uuummm. I'm… not gonna answer that." Sarah and Dauntless share a look. "Sides?" Sarah asks Dauntless. 'Yeah.' Sarah walks up and grabs me from behind. "Hey! What are you doing?" I ask, suddenly a bit worried for my safety. 'We know you're ticklish.' "Don't. You. Dare." I say as threateningly as I could muster. Which wasn't much. Dauntless starts to walk up to me. "How did you even find out I was ticklish." I ask. "You talk in your sleep sometimes." Replies Sarah. As Dauntless gets closer I start to madly wave my legs around in an attempt to stop her, while trying to free myself from Sarahs' vice like grip on my arms. 'Struggling only gonna make this sweeter for me, ya know.' Dauntless says, laughing evilly. "No." I struggle and manage to get one arm free and dig my fingernails into Sarahs' other hand. "Ow!" She says releasing me from her grasp. I dart away as fast as I could in the other direction. I'm running at full speed when I'm suddenly grabbed at the waist, knocking all the air from my lungs. I didn't even see Ares coming. 'You actually thought you were getting away that easily?' He mocks triumphantly. I struggle as he carries me back to the one thing I hate to most, my impending doom… tickles. When he reaches the others he pins me to the ground with the help of Sarah. 'Damn, for a scrawny guy, you can really struggle' "yeah, a year and a half of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu does that to you. I wriggle but to no avail as Dauntless reaches down and grabs my sides. I immediately burst into uncontrollable laughter. "P-p-p-please. Stop." I manage to blurt out. 'Tell us who the 'odd exception' is.' Demands Dauntless. "L-like I s-said before. I'm n-n-not answering thaaaa-." I say, the end of the sentence turning into nothing as I struggle to breath from the extreme laughter. This goes on for a while. I'm not quite sure how long, until they finally lose interest. Although I still can't retain my composure for at least another good five minutes.


	24. Chapter 24 Revenge

For the rest of the day, I rest with Dauntless as I try to figure out how to act out my revenge. It doesn't take long for us both to get sleepy. Apparently, tickling is really tiring. "I've missed you." I say quietly. 'Me too. I'm glad you're better.' Dauntless replies. Who is snuggled up to my back and running her hand through my hair. "You're gonna regret tickling me, you know." Dauntless giggles a bit. 'I don't doubt you. I do believe it was worth it. I think we both needed a good laugh after everything that's happened.' "Mhmm. It's so strange how my memories changed. I'll have to find out about this tomorrow. But first, I'll spend some time with you for a change. Instead of being kicked in the balls by bad luck." 'That sounds nice.' Dauntless says snuggling up into my back a bit more before falling asleep. I follow suit not long after. I have a strange dream, although it feels familiar. I wake up to a loud beeping in my ear. Grumbling to myself, I get up and turn off my alarm. I head downstairs and make myself a cup of tea. I sit down after also making up some cereal and drink my tea. When I'm done, I put my stuff in the sink and prepare for work. As I drive up to the massive facility with the letters 'WY' and their slogan 'building better worlds' over the entrance. I walk in and say hello to the accountant, Maria. She waves at me as I enter the elevator. 'One, two, three.' I think to myself as I triple-press the ground button and insert my key card. It goes down. Even after all this time, I am still surprised at the size of the sprawling underground facility. When it stops I'm greeted my Sarah. "Hey stranger." She says. "Hey love." I reply, kissing her. I met Sarah while working with one of the Xenomorphs. As it turns out, she was her host. Her name is Dauntless. As usual, I go to my work station and sign in, then get to work. At around three o'clock, someone knocks on the door. I open it to see that it's Sarah. "Hey, I'm ready if you want to go and start." She says. "Perfect. After you." I reply. We go down to the Xenomorph holding chambers and stop outside one with a Praetorian in it. As Sarah, and a few others, are the only ones that have clearance, I wait as she uses her key card to let us enter. At the sound of the pneumatic doors opening, Dauntless turns her head as much as she could. "Hey D" Sarah greets. I hear a purr in response as Sarah hugs her head. "I'm good." She says to her. I stand a bit away from them, still a bit wary. Sarah notices me. "Ugh. You're gonna have to get over this fear eventually you know." She says to me. "I know, I just don't wanna lose my hand or something." I reply. "Oh please, you'll be fine. Dauntless will be nice. Won't you D." She motions for me to come over and I reluctantly do as I'm told. Once I'm over she takes my hand and slowly brings it to Dauntless' face. She hisses at me. "Hey. Be nice." Sarah scolds while tapping her head. This makes me smile. With a gulp, I reluctantly bring my hand back towards her head. Dauntless moves her head away slightly, making me stop for a moment before resuming. I touch her head, it's smooth and cold. After a moment, I start to stroke her head, making her purr. "Looks like she's warming up to you. Sarah says. All of a sudden there's an almighty boom and the lights go out which are replaced with red ones. I hear the Matriarch scream. It sounds strange, as if it's resounding around inside my head instead of the air. Dauntless suddenly burst out of her restraints and sends me flying across the room with her tail. She walks over to Sarah. 'Where is mother?' She asks. 'Can I hear her?' I think. "I-I can't." Replies Sarah to Dauntless, scared. 'You're lying. Where is she?' She growls. "Dauntless I can't, they'll kill me." 'What do you think's gonna happen here?' "I'm sorry, I-I just can't." 'Then you're of no use to me.' Says Dauntless as she plunges her thumbs into Sarahs' eyes. I wake up suddenly. "Hey, everything okay?' Asks Dauntless, who I've semi thrown off me. "Yeah. Just a bad dream." I reply. 'Must've been one helluva dream. I can feel your fear seeping off of you as if you were in danger.' "No I'm fine just, you wouldn't hurt me? Intentionally." 'No of course not. Why?' She asks, worried. "No it's nothing. You were just part of the dream. I guess I'm still recovering from the memories." 'Okay. Are you sure you're alright?' I nod which seems to fill her with confidence. 'Right then. Since I probably won't get any more rest and you're mine for the day, what should we do?' "It's up to you." I reply. 'Ooh, very gentlemanly like.' She smiles. "I aim to please. What do you want to do?" Dauntless ponders for a moment. 'Did you do any fighting?' "Yeah, I did Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu." I wonder what she's thinking. 'Well, would you like to practice with me? It'll be fun.' "Umm, yeah. Sounds awesome." I say, a little excited. She takes my hand and guides me to a fairly big room that'll do for our needs. 'Well, look who it is.' Says Ares, approaching us. "Hey." 'So, what're you doing in the… gym?' 'James and I are going to do some sparring.' 'So pretty much, you're gonna use James as your punching bag.' Jokes Ares. "Hey, I'm not that bad." 'Yeah yell, you haven't met Dauntless.' He replies. This unnerves me a bit. Ares spots this. 'Hey, I'll stay here for moral support. And to laugh at you when you get hurt.' He mocks. I punch him on the shoulder. 'Come on then.' Dauntless says, getting impatient. She grabs my hand and pulls me to the centre of the room. She wastes no time in getting into a fighting stance. I do the same and she instantly punches me in the face, it was as fast as lightning and catches me off guard. 'You alright?' She asks. "Yeah, I just wasn't ready." I reply. 'Well, life doesn't wait, so come on.' "If you say so." I reach in a punch and she easily blocks it, but with my distance now closed, I fly a kick into her side. She has a look of surprise on her face at the fact that I actually managed to land something. 'Well, now that I know that you weren't lying when you said you had experience fighting…' She looks at me with a smirk on her face and I start to worry. She flies towards me, again catching me off guard. She raises her leg to kick but instead uses her momentum to land an amazingly hard punch onto my face. With me disorientated, she gets to work turning my organs to jelly with her legs. I can't do anything but take it as I try to gain any kind of composure. After about three hundred normal human bone breaking kicks, I manage to catch her leg. Caught up in her kicking, Dauntless raises her other leg just to end up on her back and I waste no time pinning her to the floor. *warning. This may start to look like something completely different than it is, so don't get any ideas. Anyway, you have been warned.* As is by instinct, Dauntless grabs my arm and pushes my elbow into her chest with my hand pointing towards my stomach, which is definitely not comfortable, but not painful either. I make the worst decision I can in this position and grab my arm with the other and I end up on my back with dauntless' legs pinning me down and my arm locked up on her chest. She starts to push my arm up which causes me to nearly tap out, until I decide to pull my arm down under my chest, freeing me of her grasp. I slide out from under her and try to get back on to but she wraps her legs around my waist and pulls me in close so I can't escape. 'Having fun?' She asks. "Yeah." I reply. I manage to get up and work on undoing Dauntless grip of steel that's holding me where I am. I manage to break it and stand up, trying to get what rest I can. I forgot how tiring this can be. Dauntless stands and stares at me. 'What's wrong? A bit tired?' Says Dauntless, who herself is breathing heavily. "Yeah. Where'd you learn to do this anyway?" 'Sarah taught me.' "Oh." 'Thanks Sarah.' I think to myself. Slightly wrapped up in my thoughts, I didn't even see Dauntless going in for me. I only felt her hands wrap around my legs and pull. Feel the air rush past me and catch a glimpse of Ares, who is watching with a smile. I hit the ground with an 'oof' and see Dauntless on top of me. I struggle to escape and decide to rip a page from Dauntless' notebook. I grab her arm and push her elbow into my chest with her hand pointing towards her stomach. She makes the round ending mistake by instinctively grabbing my arm to pull it away, which ends up with her on the ground pinned with my legs and her arm in between them. As I start to stretch her arm, she taps out and I let go. 'You're good.' She says. "Thanks." I say with deep, tired breaths. She pulls me in with her tail and wraps her arms around me and I do the same. We lay there for a moment until I get an idea. I push with my legs which makes her stand, then I grab her ankles and push her waist with my feet and she topples over. I sit down on top of her. 'What are you doing?' "Well, considering that I can't think of any other way of getting revenge on you for tickling me. I'm going to return the favour." 'James. Don't you dare.' "I said that and you didn't stop." I say, smirking. 'Please, I hate being tickled.' "Doesn't everyone? Now where to start." She suddenly tries to flick me off balance, but I stay on top. After a few tries, she gives up. "Where do you think I should start?" I ask her. 'Alright, I give up. The ribs.' Smirking, I poke at her ribs, making her squirm. I do this with each one until I find the one with the most affect. I start to gently dig my fingers in between them. She start to laugh uncontrollably. 'Ah, stop.' She pleads. "Nope." 'Ares help!' She then shouts. He walks over past me and kneels down in front of Dauntless, and then grabs her arms. 'That's not what I meant.' She says. 'I know, but I'm feeling treacherous today.' He replies. With Dauntless' arms out of the way, I dig my fingers a little deeper and she absolutely loses it. When I'm done, I place my arms on my hips and sit back. "That was fun." I say. Dauntless, still giggling, pushes me over and lands on top of me. She then proceeds to kiss me and I return it. "That was surprising." I say. "Mmh hmm." We hear Sarah who was clearing her throat. "Oh, hello." I say.


	25. Chapter 25 Movie night

"Oh, hello." I say. "Hi. Please tell me that I didn't interrupt anything gross." She says. "No. I just got revenge for that little scheme yesterday then Dauntless and I beat each other up." I reply cheerily. "Oh, thank god. That's a relief." "Why, did you think that we were…" I ask, showing what I meant with my hands. "Yep. And I'm glad you didn't do it here. In public for one." She says, grimacing. "Oh, you'll be fine." I say. "And I'd be in a very good mood." I mutter to myself. 'Oh, stop.' Dauntless says, flicking me on the ear after hearing me. "Hey!" Sarah rolls her eyes at me. "Boys." "It's not my fault that I'm fifteen." Dauntless looks away slightly, as if she feels guilty. "Hey, what's up?" I ask her, which snaps her out of her thoughts. 'What? Oh, nothing, just thinking of something.' "Alright then. You wanna go for another round of beating each other up?" I reply. 'Nah, I'm poofed. Besides, I think Ares is feeling lonely.' I look over to Ares. "Do ya feel up to it?" I ask him. 'Hell yeah! I've always wanted to repay you from the first time we met.' Thinking back, I remember beating him up. "Well then, you're gonna be very disappointed." I say, getting up. Dauntless also gets up and quickly gets out of the way. I get back into a low fighting stance. "You ready?" I ask him. He nods and charges towards me, catching me off guard again. He grabs my waist and continues towards the wall. As we reach it I manage to manoeuvre myself so my legs spring me off the wall and over him. I grab his shoulder to face myself towards his back while mid air and wrap one hand around his neck, locking it in the nook of my elbow of my other arm on his head. Well, more under than around, but producing the same result. Realising what I've just done, I smile uncontrollably. 'How did I manage that?' I'm snapped back into reality when I feel his hands dig into my my arm, trying to pry me off. 'Alright alright! I give up.' He shouts and I let go. 'Fucking hell. How'd you do that?' He asks rubbing his neck. "Absolutely no idea." I reply. I notice the two girls walking towards us, impressed. "Wow." They both say in unison. 'How the fuck did you manage that?' Asks Dauntless. "No idea. I'm amazed." "Do you think it could be a repressed memory?" Asks Sarah. "Of the time in the simulations?" I reply. She nods. "Maybe. Most likely. If it was, I hope that's the only one. I don't want to have the chance of any bad ones." 'Me too, just in case it makes you want to rip my head off or something.' Dauntless says. "I wouldn't do that." 'I wouldn't put it past them that they pumped that much hatred into you.' "I suppose. Anyway, what do you wanna do now?" I ask. 'I don't know. Any ideas yourself?' I shake my head. "I might have an idea." Sarah says. "What is it?" I ask. "A movie night." 'A what?' asks Dauntless. "It's where we sit down and watch a bunch of movies back to back." 'Oh. No, still not getting it.' "Ah, you'll see. How would we even watch them?" I ask, turning to Sarah. "Back in a mo'." She replies and turns to go somewhere. "Where are you going." I ask. "Just getting something. Won't be long." She calls back, jogging, I assume, towards the exit. I turn back to Dauntless. "Where's she going?" She shrugs. 'I dunno.' "I'd say she just can't handle the amazingness that is me, not many people can." I joke. 'You are so full of yourself sometimes.' Dauntless says, smiling. "Not if it's true." 'If you say so.' She puts her arm around me. 'Come on.' "Where are we going?" I ask her. 'Somewhere.' "Not vague at all." I say then turn back to Ares. "See ya later." 'See ya.' He replies. Dauntless guides me towards the exit and stops near it. "Why are we here?" I ask her. 'We are going to wait for Sarah.' She replies. "Alright. Let's sit down then." We find a particularly comfy part of wall and sit down and she snuggles into me. After a while, Sarah enters and is carrying something. I look at Dauntless and realise she fell asleep on my shoulder. "Wakey wakey." I say, shaking her gently. She looks up at me. 'Hey. Did I fall asleep?' She asks. "Yep. And it was adorable. The can be crazed killing machine all snuggly and cute." I tease. "Hey you two." Calls Sarah. We get up and walk over to her. "Is that a projector?" I ask Sarah and she nods. "That thing's ancient. How old are you?" I ask, completely bewildered at how she got her hands on this. "What can I say, I'm a collector with a bit of a hoarding issue." "Does it work?" "Yes. At least, it did the last time I used it." "And when was that?" I ask. "Last week." She replies. "The last time I saw one of these was at a museum, and even that one didn't work. Believe me, I tried." I say, even more bewildered. "Well, I can assure you that this one works. Now hold it." She pushes it towards me. "Why me?" "Because it's heavy and it's gentlemanly." I take it out of her hands. "Fine." I huff. "Now, this way." 'What's that way?' Asks Dauntless. "It's an old rec room so it'll have plugs." I giggle crazily with excitement, earning looks from the two. "You alright there?" Sarah asks, with a smirk. "Sorry. I do that sometimes when I'm overly excited." I explain. "Here we are." Sarah announces. 'It's just like any other room.' Dauntless comments. "Yes but, if I can remember correctly, there's a plug… here." Sarah says after inspecting the room for a moment. "Could we break through?" She then asks. 'No, the queen might, but I doubt she's gonna come down here for our personal entertainment.' Dauntless replies. "Here, I'll try." I say. 'Ok then, have a go, although I don't think you're gonna get anywhere.' I put down the projector and walk towards Sarah. "Where exactly?" I ask her. "Here." She replies, pointing to a place on the wall. 'Hopefully it doesn't hurt… Much.' I think to myself as I line up my fist with the indicated point. I pull back my fist and slam it into the wall, cracking it. I do this a few more times before I start to pull away the chips and see the familiar sight of a plug socket. "Success!" I announce triumphantly. I walk over to the projector, bring it over and plug it in. The display bursts to life. I check to see that it has an internet connection and load up Netflix. "What first?" I ask Dauntless. 'Hmm. Something weird and creepy.' She replies. "Dark skies?" I suggest. 'What's it about?' She asks. "Really weird stuff." 'Alright then.' I load it up and get comfy with Dauntless. "I'll leave you two to it then. Just don't break it." Sarah says before leaving. After the movie Dauntless is completely creeped out. 'How are you not freaked?' She asks me. "One, I've watched it before. And two, I've watched a lot of weird shit." I reply. 'Still. Fucking' freaky.' "That it is. Now what else do you want to watch?" I ask her. 'I dunno, you pick.' I ponder for a moment. "Wanna watch a few Star Wars movies?" I suggest. ' What's it about. "Stars and wars." 'Okay, not what I was looking for but I'll give it a shot.' I find them on another website and put it on. After three of them, I start to get pretty tired. "Did you enjoy?" I ask her. 'Yeah.' She replies as she snuggles into me and I fall asleep.


	26. Chapter 26 Nightmares

I wake up to find Dauntless nowhere to be seen. I get up to see that it's deserted. Feeling a bit creeped out, I move through the hive while keeping an eye on the corners and crevices. I walk in for about fifteen minutes before I find a door in the middle of the corridor. No frame, no walls, just a door and a handle. Confused and curious, I walk up to the door to inspect it closer. As I reach it I get the sudden urge to open it, which I oblige to. I'm suddenly thrown across the room, which has changed into a Xenomorph holding chamber. I see Dauntless holding Sarah off the ground by the head. 'Where is mother?' She asks. 'Can I hear her?' I think. "I-I can't." Replies Sarah to Dauntless, scared. 'You're lying. Where is she?' She growls. "Dauntless I can't, they'll kill me." 'What do you think's gonna happen here?' "I'm sorry, I-I just can't." 'Then you're of no use to me.' I see her plunge her thumbs into her eyes. Not being able to turn away or block out Sarahs' screams, I sit there and look in horror. After a minute or two she stops. I watch as Dauntless removes her thumbs from Sarahs' eye sockets, who I realise is still alive, and start to apply pressure onto her head. I hear cracks and crunches as her skull caves in. At least I was able to close my eyes this time. I open them to see Sarah lying against the wall with only half of her head left on her neck. The rest is a mushy, red puddle with the consistency of porridge. I look up to see dauntless prowl towards me. I back up as much as I can and curl up into a ball. The containment door blasts open and three heavily armed men enter and immediately start shooting to no avail. After their screams had stopped echoing down the halls, I look up to see them scattered all over the room, painting everything a dark red. In a last ditch attempt of survival I try to make a run for it, only to be stopped by a hand twisting around my neck and throw me to the floor. It now stands over me with barely a scratch on her. 'Where is mother? Answer this and I might just let you live.' It demands. "W-who?" I ask while shitting my pants. 'Where is the queen?' "I don't know, I'm not even supposed to know where this is." 'Then why are you here?' "Because of her.' I reply, looking at what's left of Sarah. 'Well then. I must reunite you two then, shouldn't I?' It chuckles. And with that it leans down and rips my chest open, making me scream in agony, then rips out my heart. It slowly starts to squeeze and I'm forced to watch, powerless as it crushes my heart between its' hands. I watch it devour my organs as my life slowly fades. I wake up but not with a scream or sitting up, I just open my eyes and stare. I notice the Dauntless has her hands wrapped around my stomach. Terrified at what she can do, I slowly remove the hand and walk away. 'Where are you going?' She asks and I curse myself for stirring her. "To the toilet." I reply hoping she's tired enough to obliviously agree without question. 'Ok.' She replies sleepily and falls back asleep. As soon as I'm outside the room I bolt towards the exit at speeds that I thought weren't humanly possible. I nearly crash into Sarah but instead I dive in between her legs without slowing. "Woah cowboy!" She yells and I keep running towards the exit. After I reach it, I slam the door behind me and head for the bathroom now doing a jog. Upon reaching the bathroom I start to gulp down the water from the tap, which strangely calms me down somewhat. "The fuck are you doing?" Asks an employee who had just exited one of the stalls. "Trying not to have a panic attack and failing." I reply. In the mirror, I see him shrug and walk off. I stare into it for what seems like an eternity. I exit to find Sarah bent over with her hands on her knees, taking in big gulps of air before standing up straight. "What's wrong?" She asks, still breathing heavily. I feel tears rush to my eyes and there's nothing I can do when I hug her, holding her tight. "Hey, it's okay. What happened." She says while stroking my back. "R-Remember the first memory I had, of Dauntless killing me?" I ask, still sobbing. "Yeah, what about it?" She replies. "I remembered the rest." "Come on. Let's sit down." Sarah guides me back to her room, which isn't far, and sits me down on the end of the bed. "Tell me exactly that you remember." "It started last night when I woke up in a bed in an apartment somewhere. It turns out I worked in a Weyland Yutani lab and I was your… your boyfriend." "Okay. Continue." "We went into Dauntless' holding chamber and the power went out. Long story short, she killed you, three heavily armed men and finally me. And it turns out that the blood in the walls wasn't mine." For a moment she sits there, taking it all in. "Oh. Well, what are you gonna do?" "I'm going to confront Weyland about the shit in my back and then face the Dauntless thing head on. I'm tired of being scared. Do you mind if I spend the rest of the night here?" "No, not at all." I thank her and lie down to sleep. The next morning I find Weyland in the canteen. "James!" He says happily. "How've you been?" "Not good." "Oh. Why?" "Actually, that's exactly what I was going to ask you. Why?" "Why what?" "Why were there eight symmetrical scars on my back. Each with a microchip that not just fucked with my memories, but also changed my mood?" "Wait what? When'd you find this out?" "When Sarah removed them. But that's not important. What is important is how we might want to take this to your office before we go any further." "Yes, that seems wise." I follow him back to his office. "Now. Why were they in my back?" I ask. "I have no idea." "Don't lie." "I swear I don't." "Okay. If not you then who? Who else was with me in the year I was under?" "There was only one other person." "Well, who is it?" "All I know is that his name is Cato." "When can I meet him?" "At the earliest? Three days." "Well then, book it." I say before walking out. I then make my way back to the hive, where I see Sarah and Dauntless waiting for me. Dauntless walks over to me. 'Tired of being scared. Tired of being scared.' I repeat to myself in my head. When she reaches me, she wraps her arms around me. 'I am so so sorry.' She says to me. "You didn't do anything. Besides, I'm tired of being scared." I reply now with my arms around her.


	27. Chapter 27 Lies

After a little while of wandering, I bump into Dauntless. 'Hey.' She says. "Hi." I reply. "How've you been?" 'Good. Guilty at what you had to see, but good otherwise.' "Don't be guilty, it wasn't you." 'I know, but it still feels that way.' "Nah. Could we find somewhere to sit? My legs are kinda tired." 'Sure.' We begin to walk down the corridor. 'James.' "Hmmm?" 'Remember when you came back and I hugged you?' She asks me. "Yeah, why?" 'You hugged me back. Why, I thought you'd be terrified of me?' "In here?" I say, pointing to a room off to the side. 'Sure.' "Well, it's kinda second nature for me." 'How so?' "Me and my mum have been through a whirlwind of emotional trauma so I made it my job to help her. And my mum really likes hugs." She giggles slightly. 'So you're not afraid of me?' "I'm… terrified of you. To be honest, it's kinda difficult to keep it together." 'Oh.' "Hey, it's not your fault. Also, there's something that I want to ask you about. If you don't mind." 'What?' "It's about Cato. What happened?" 'I guess mother told you.' I nod. 'He… he thought it would be… funny, I guess, to break my legs and lay me where I could watch him slaughter our people.' "Wow. Sick fuck." I say. 'Do you mind if we don't go any further into this topic?' She says slightly shakily. "That's completely fine." 'Thanks.' The next two days go by fairly quickly and boring. The day before the meeting, I arrange some small things with Weyland. 'Be careful. Especially if it actually is Cato.' Dauntless says to me before I leave to meet this man, whoever he is. "I will." I reply. I exit the hive and make my way to the mess hall where I said I'd meet Weyland yesterday. "Ah, James, there you are." He says to me. "Hi. Can we get this over with?" "Sure. This way." I follow him down some corridors to a neatly decorated room. "He's in there." Weyland says to me before I enter. "Thanks for this." "No problem. Just take this." He says, handing be a small tactical knife. "He's a bit… off." "Thanks. I take the knife and hide it in my pants before I enter. Cato's looks about six-five from what I can tell, since he's sitting down, with dark brown hair and a strong build, but not what you'd see on a bodybuilder, and has blue eyes. "Hello. You must be James." He says to me, holding out his hand, which I take. "Yep." I sit down across from him. "So, what is it that you want to talk about?" "A few things. We'll start with the one that pisses me off the most." "And that is?" "The eight pieces of advanced machinery that was in my back. Manipulating my memories and moods." "Ah yes. And that, I'm afraid, I can't tell you." "And why not?" "Because I don't want to." "Look. I'm just gonna keep along why I till you give me a proper answer." "I know. There's something that I want to ask you first." "If you answer my question, I'll answer yours." "Okay. Do you mind if I go first?" "By all means." "Okay. What did they tell you? I mean, how much?" "Who?" "Well, I'm guessing they told you about my role in their lives."I sit back and putting my hands on my lap, ready to jump to action if I need to. "Yes. They did." "Everything? Wow, I'm quite surprised." This catches my attention. "Well, tell me from your perspective and we'll compare notes." "Okay. They told you about my two daughters and my wife?" I nod. "Did they tell you about my son?" "No." "his name was Jim. He was a lovely boy. That was, until they took him, me too, although I refused and was let go." "Go on." I say. Getting more and more curious at the conversation. 'Why wouldn't they tell me this?' I think to myself. "I went back, as you were probably told, and eventually found my son, and my capturer. Do you know what I did to her?" "No." "well. I broke her legs and forced her to watch and I murdered her brethren." 'Wait, what? Why didn't Dauntless tell me?' I think. "Anyways, I found my son eventually, but not as who he was. He was much, much different. He even changed his name. He went by Ares after that point onwards." My throat dries up, as it always does when I feel left out of the loop like this. "A lot to take in? Here, have this." He pulls out a small bottle of what looks to be cider. "Go on. What harm." He says to me. I shrug and drink it. "Hmm." I say. "That's your first drink?" "Apart from the odd sip of what we had in the cupboard, yeah." "Hmm. Anyway. Considering you're reaction, I assume you've met them?" "Yes." "And from what I could piece together from the simulations-" "wait, you were the head of that?" I ask, now angry. "Yes. But, everything I did was under Weylands guidance. I had no say." "Okay, continue." "As I was saying, from what I pieced together, you were taken as a child. And I'm pretty sure there's only one person, well thing, who'd do that." "And who is that?" I ask, fearing I already knew the answer. "The same monster that captured me. Dauntless."

I know what I said about not getting a chapter out this week due to all my tests but I got bored of nothing happening and I moved on with the story. And I have a bit of a schedule that I'd like to keep up. Anyways, hope you liked it. If there's any mistakes, tell me and I'll fix them.


	28. Chapter 28 Monsters In Plain Sight

Those last sentences burn themselves into my memory as I begin stand. "We're done here." I say. "One last thing." Cato says as I teach the door. "If you ever want employment, I'd be happy to accommodate." "I'll keep it in mind. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to have a chat with my girlfriend." I exit the room and walk straight past Weyland. "The knife?" He asks. "Keeping it." I reply. I get back to the hive and meet Dauntless soon after. 'Hey, how'd it go?' "Do you want the good news or the bad news?" I say, arms crossed. 'I'd prefer the good news.' "Well, it's Cato." 'How is that good news?' "Well, it's not, but I think the next bit is worse." 'Okay, what is it?' "Cato… filled in some blanks." 'About what?' "About you, Ares, a lot of things really." 'What did he say?' She asks, worried. "Just that, you know, you were the one who grabbed me from my home and brought me back to the hive. Ripping me from my family, my friends, my whole life really. But that can't be true, my girlfriend can't be the monster who did that." 'James.' She sighs. 'I'm sorry.' At those words, something snaps inside my head. "You're sorry about destroying my life?" I say, now furious. 'Yes.' "No. you don't get to be sorry. You saw what my mum was like when I went to her. Think about all the others." 'Just let me explain.' "Fine then, explain." 'We were out on a recruiting mission, as we called them, but we only take either homeless people or people who are close to death.' "Then why were you in my room? And come to think of it, it was a drone. Was that you?" 'Yes. I decided to change shortly after I came back. As for why I was in your room, I was curious.' "About what?" 'I could feel your sorrow, your anguish. The only other time I felt something like that was when I met Cato. But I needed to get close, to be sure. I didn't realise you were awake until it was too late. And when you saw me, I panicked.' "So you fucked up, is what you're telling me?" She nods. "I can't believe this." I chuckle. "When we first met, not long after my rebirth, did you know it was me?" 'No.' "And when did you learn?" 'When you told me, in the cave shortly after Weyland Yutani attacked and we escaped.' "And why didn't you tell me?" 'I was afraid you'd hate me.' "You were right to." I say, turning to leave. 'James, please don't go.' I stop and turn back. "Why? Why shouldn't I go? Why would I stay with the person, no monster, who destroyed my life and broke my family and friends' hearts?" I say, my voice rising towards the end. I start walking towards the exit again. 'What's going on?' Asks Ares, who walks up behind us. 'James wait!' He shouts, running towards me and grabbing my arm. "Why?" I say after turning again to face him. He grabs both my arms. 'You don't know my father.' "Why should I care?" 'After I was taken, he went insane. He nearly killed me.' "I don't care." 'Okay, at least don't go to him. Please.' "Let me ask you something. We all had a choice. Why did you accept this?" 'I was dying. When that Xeno hit my two sisters, he hit me too, only not through the neck, but my stomach instead.' "So you had no choice." 'No, I didn't.' "Yeah, well I do. And that," I say, pointing at Dauntless. "Won't stop me." 'James don't go.' Pleads Dauntless, who has approached me. I move closer to her and bring my lips to her head, where her ears would be. "I. Hate. You." I whisper. I leave Ares and the now sobbing monster and exit the hive and find Cato. "I need a lift." "Where to?" He asks. "To your place, so I can start my new job."

Sorry that I haven't pisted anything in a while, I just never got around to it, anyways, enjoy and if there's any mistakes tell me and I'll fix them. Any suggestions are appreciated but more me instead of commenting so there's no spoilers.


	29. Chapter 29 First Day

"You're sure you want to work with me?" Cato asks as we turn down a dirt road. "Yeah. I can't really work anywhere else." I sigh. "It's just that, if you want out. You can't leave." "I don't have much choice, do I? No one else will take me without any qualifications." "Hmm, true." We turn left and enter the car park of a massive warehouse. "We're here." Cato says after getting out. "That was fast. Although, this place doesn't seem that impressive." "The magic happens when you enter." I get out and follow Cato to the entrance. "Hey boss, who's this?" Calls one of the four guards standing outside. "A new volunteer." "Oh. Good luck man." Another says to me." I thank him and go inside. "You weren't kidding." I say after seeing the interior. The walls are black with red banners lined with gold and a black serpent in the middle, hung along the walls. The corridors are tall and long with a small ledge on the second floor. It's well lit and warm. There's a red carpet going on a line down the centre and black everywhere else. "You must really like red and black." I say. "It's the colour of our crest. And yes, I do like red and black." Cato replies. "Also, where is everyone?" "They're here, hiding just behind your line of sight." He then shouts an order I don't understand and all of a sudden, hundred of men and women appear out of nowhere, all wearing black and red with a serpent insignia under their left shoulder. They all have one kind of weapon, or another, pointing at me. "Ah. There they are" I say. "You can go now." He says to them and they retreat back into the darkness. "Here, I'll give you a quick tour." "What was that you shouted to them?" I ask. "Complete gibberish." We walk down the long corridor and take a left before going down some stairs to an observation room built into the dirt. Inside, there's a Xenomorph that I've never seen before. He is at least two feet taller than a praetorian with mandibles and dreadlocks. He, or she, I can't really tell, is just sitting there, staring at us, me in particular. "What. Is that?" I ask, scared of this… thing. "We call him a predalien. He's a mixture of Xeno and a species called predators, or Yaujta, to their people. They are the Xenomorph's only natural predator." "I wasn't aware they had one." "They're similar to humans apart from their incredible strength and mandibles." "Where did you find it?" "We didn't." "Then how did you get it?" "Let's Just say that the predators aren't immune to sedatives. It just took a lot of bear tranquillisers." "What do you do with him?" "It's where we put most of the rejects." "Rejects?" "Remember how I said that you can't leave?" I nod. "Rejects." "Why won't I be able to leave?" "Some of our methods are a bit… unorthodox. Anyhow, let me show you where you'll be sleeping." We walk away from that thing, to my relief, and head down a few more corridors. We walk into a room lined with beds. "Here we are." It's darker than everywhere else and has the red carpet heading from each bed and converging in the middle before leading to the door. And, this pleases me a small bit, there's a divider between every bed. "Who's this?" Asks a voice from further down the hall. "This is our new recruit, James." Says Cato. "Huh. I'm Clara." As she approaches, I start to make out her features since she was speaking to us from a distance. She had red hair and blue eyes and is about five-six. "Hi." "One second. Cato, you said that we weren't gonna recruit anyone else." "Well, James has kindly agreed to join us from his job at Weyland Yutani." "Oh, well that changes things. Will I tour him around the rest of the place? I know what you're like." "I have no idea what you mean." He says, smiling. "Yes you do." She turns to me. "Come on." She walks back the way she came and I follow. "He never shows anyone anything past the dorms and it drives me mad. I think that's why he does it, to wind me up." "Hmm, sounds like something I'd do." I say. "Well, if you do, you'll get a broken nose." "Sounds fair." We come to a crossroads in the corridor. "Left and right are more dorms and straight onwards is the mess hall and kitchen." We walk on towards the mess hall. We pass it and keep walking for another while. "Here is the incinerator. This is where you put all the shit you don't want, or you can put them into the bin in your dorm." "Well, I know which one I'm gonna be using." I mutter. "And that concludes our tour. If you have any questions, you can ask me, but don't expect a reply because I really don't care." "Okay. When does training start, and where." "Whenever and wherever." "That makes no sense." "Basically, piss someone off." "Hmm. One more question." "What?" "Is there a high casualty rate?" "Let's just say, there the wheat and the chaff. And you don't wanna be the chaff." With that, she walks off, leaving me to myself. I head back to my dorm and go to sleep since it was a very long drive here. Although, it didn't feel like it. When we left the labs, it was only midday but when we reached the warehouse it was well into the night. People must think it's strange that if they move off planet, the length of day and night is different. For example, here, the days are longer in winter than in summer and vice versa. When off planet colonization originally boomed, the U.N.E. *i'm not sure if there's an actual name for earth, as a whole, in the lore so I made it up if there is, tell me plz*, United Nations of Earth, stated that time will not change depending on the planet and will forever be parallel with the times on earth. With this in mind, I drift to sleep.


	30. Chapter 30 A New Friend

'My child. Come home.' I hear in my dreams. 'No.' I reply. 'Please.' 'Why should I, After what Dauntless did?' 'She did that because she was afraid of losing you. Surely you can forgive her.' 'If you think I'm going to forgive the one thing that not only screwed my life over, but everyone around me too, then you're highly mistaken.' 'Well, I cannot force you to return. But please, reconsider.' 'Why didn't you tell me? If you can give me a good answer, then I'll think about it.' 'You know well why. Besides, it wasn't my place to tell you.' 'Goodbye.' 'Will you think about it?' 'Maybe.' 'Well then, goodbye, my child.' I wake up to water in my face. "Lookie here, he's finally up." Says an unknown voice. "Thanks, asshole." "Don't mention it."for a moment, nothing happens. "So, are you gonna get up?" "Nope." "And why not?" "Because you want me to. That and I'm lazy." "Huh." I hear him move closer to me. He then grabs my chin and pulls my face towards his. "If you want to make it in here, you're gonna want to start doing what I say, or else." I open my eyes. Since he's crouched down, I can't tell his height but he has black hair, blue eyes and a nasty scar down his face. I chuckle. "Typical." I say. "What's so funny?" He asks. "Or else." I mock with a deep voice. He does a pretty accurate dog growl as he stands up. He then punches me in the chest, breaking something. "Ah, fuck that hurt. Here's a tip for beating people up if they're in bed." I groan. "What?" "Stay out of their reach." Suddenly, I stretch out my arm and connect with his junk. He steps back, groaning. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and see if there's anyone around who'll look at my chest." I get out of the bed and walk past the four guys in the room. "This isn't over." He calls to me. I ignore him. I find clara. "Hey." She says. "Hi. By any chance, would you know I've broken a rib or something?" "Why do you ask?" "I think I've broken a rib or something." I say, rubbing my chest. "Come on, I'll look at it in the canteen." I follow her. She sits me down across from her. "Be warned, the only reason I'm doing this is because you'll owe me one." "Fine, just do it." She starts to feel up and down my chest. "Nothing's broken, you've just cracked it." "Okay, thanks." "Yeah, don't mention it. Remember, you owe me." "Yeah, yeah." I spend the rest of the day thinking about my decision. 'Have you come to a decision?' I hear, that night. 'Yes. I'm staying.' 'Very well. Goodbye, my child.' 'Bye mother.' I sigh.

Hello! Sorry that this one's a quite short. I got back from my relatives who I spent New Years with yesterday night and my laptop's MIA so I'm using my mums' phone. I'm working on getting another phone and should get it soon. I'm getting a motorola moto G4 if anyone's interested.  
Anyways, hoped you enjoyed! If there's and mistakes, point them out and I'll fix them asap.


	31. chapter 31 Visitor

Hi. I'm back! I'm dearly sorry for the absence, i got my laptop taken off me and when i got it back, i was talking behind on my schoolwork. all that's sorted out now so i should start uploading again. anyways, i hope you enjoy!!

The next day, when I get up, I notice a loose metal bar under my bed. After thinking about what I could do with it to stop me dying from boredom, I get an idea. With a little effort, I pull it out and move over to the next bed. The person who sleeps there is already awake. "What're you doing?" He asks me. "I'm bored and I have an idea." I reply. "Okay. As long as you don't plan on beating me to death, I don't mind." "Don't worry, you're safe." I reply, smiling. I place the pointy side of the bar against the divider and twist it through. I move over to the other side and do the same. "There." I mumble, quite pleased with my makeshift pull-up bar. "Hmm. Not bad." "Thanks." I try it out and it seems to work pretty well. "Now, let's see if my bed will hold." "Wait, you took that from the bed?" "Yeah, why?" "It's not gonna work." He walks over to the bed and kicks it. It creaks before collapsing in the middle. "Shit." "Smooth." I roll my eyes at him. I kneel down beside my bed and work each of the legs off one by one. I step back and dust off my legs. "There, problem solved." "Yeah, but now you have a midget-bed." "Better that sleeping on the floor." "Hmm, you got me there." "You want to have a go?" I ask, pointing at the bar. "Sure." He replies. He steps up and does twenty five chin-ups. "How many can you do?" He asks me. I shrug and step up. It turns out that I can do nearly fifteen. "Wow, you really need to work in your upper body strength." He says. "Maybe. What's your name anyway?" "Jim. Yours?" "James." "Hmm. Nice meetin' ya." He holds out his hand, which I take in one of mine. Not much else happens for the more of midday until someone walks up to me while I'm eating. "You're James?" "Yeah." "Follow me. Some chick called Sarah wants to see you." 'What's she doing here?' I think to myself. I follow him to a big room near the entrance. I see Sarah sitting there. "I'll leave you to it." The guy says before walking off. "Hey." I say, walking to her. "Hey James." "What are you doing here? Did Dauntless send you?" I ask. "No, I came on my own. James, please come home." "No." "why not." "You know why. Besides, I can't leave even if I wanted to." "Please?" "No! Not after what Dauntless did. Not yet." "James, she's barely functioning." "What do you mean?" "Xenomorph psychology is very different from a human. She barely eats, completely blocks out everyone, I have barely seen her rest, let alone sleep. She needs you." "Sarah, I won't. I'm still really sore about what she did. And the fact that you all lied to me." "We didn't lie." "Well, you knew and still didn't tell me." "James. I'm not asking you to forgive her or any of us, I'm asking you to come back so that Dauntless will actually function again." "Why should I? After what she did." "Because you care." "Ok, I'll admit that I still think about her, but who wouldn't. I mean, I still like her, but I'm not going back." "She's killing herself." "Fine then. Tell her that maybe someday, I'll come back. But I need time. Right now, I can't forgive her but I will, and I know that I will, come to terms with what she did." "Fine." I turn to walk away. "One last thing." She calls to me. "What?" I say, turning back. She pulls out something, a little Xenomorph plush. "This was meant to be a birthday slash Christmas gift for you. But then everything happened and Dauntless never got a chance to give it to you. So she asked me to give it to you now." I take it and, to be honest, it is a little cute. "Tell her thanks." I leave. "Its molecular acid proof too so you don't have to worry about that." She calls to me when I'm at the door. As I'm going back to my room, someone big blocks my way. Instantly, I know where this is going. I turn to see the guy from the other day standing a few feet away with two other men behind him. I walk up to him. "How typical. You're gonna beat me up with your guys holding me, I assume?" "Precisely." "Well then, I'll be on my way." "No you won't." He says. One of the two behind him walks over to me and reaches for my arm. I slam my fist into his face before landing a kick on the side of it. I back up as the other, bigger, guy steps up. He smirks for a moment. Until I superman punch him in the face, making him stumble. While he's dazed, I grab his arm and pull him in to choke him out, which I do. I flex out my fist as I walk away. The other guy, much bigger than the rest, still stands in the way. "Where do you think you're going?" He asks. "That way, fuckin' idiot." "No, your are not." He swings at me and I easily dodge. I then kick him in the nuts before slamming his face into my knee a few times. I step over him as he holds his profusely bleeding nose. The main guy catches up with me. "So that's it then? You're not fighting me?" I ignore him. "Is it because you're afraid? Afraid of being a failure and getting beaten to a pulp by me?" I smirk as I continue to walk away from him. "Nah, I think it's just being a failure. Well, being a failure again." I stop. "Just like you were with with your mother."


	32. Chapter 32 Chills

I'm suddenly woken up to a hand over my mouth before a sack goes over my head. I don't know where I'm being taken but it's definitely somewhere I didn't know about. From the voices I can hear along the way, there's at least three guys. Once we reach the place they're taking me to, they take off the sack. It's a small, darkish room. It turns out that there's five people in the room, three being the people I beat up.

"This is for Stephens." one of them says. They tie my legs and wrists to the chair and tip me backwards. I see one of them grab a big container of water and a rag.

"Is Stephens the name of the guy I killed?" I ask.

"You didn't even know his name?" One of them says.

"I didn't really get a chance for formalities, no."

"Then you deserve what's coming to you." the one with the rag and water says. He walks over and puts the rag over my mouth. I take a deep breath just before they start to pour the water over me.

I manage to hold it long enough for them to run out of water, but only barely.

"Danm, you can hold your breath." Says one of them.

"Yeah, tricks of the trade, I guess." I reply.

"Will we get more water?" Asks one of them to who, I assume, is the ring leader. "No. I think something more... Cold, is in order." I see some of them smile and smirk at this. They untie me from the chair but keep my ankles bound and drag me over to a freezer. They make me stand up as they open it and I get a look inside. It's filled with water and ice.

"Don't worry, we'll take you out before you die. This isn't the end of it." One of the, whispers to me. Before they put me on, they tie my wrists together, behind my back.

"Just for a little extra discomfort." One of them says. He then grabs my torso while another puts a tube down my throat, I assume so I don't drown, and then grabs my legs and tosses me in with a splash. The initial shock was unbelievable but, after a while, I kinda got used to it. After what I think is about four hours, the rope they used to tie me starts to get extremely stiff. Seeing this as my chance, I work my wrists back and forth and, sure enough, I feel the rope shatter. I try to sit up but find that my torso is extremely stiff so I bring my legs up and break the rope with my hands. I push the lid open to find no one watching me. I pull out the tube and gag a little as I do so. I pull myself over the side to feel the warmth of the floor. I drag myself away to a corner where I sit for a while until I can open my eyes. The first thing I notice is that all my skin has turned completely black. At first, I think it's frostbite but I still have the full range of movement in my arms. Slowly, my skin starts to return back to it's natural colour as my body temperature rises. After about half an hour, I can stand, albeit shakily. I walk, more like stumble along, down the hall and gladly find that it gets warmer. I didn't see any of the men who were in the room on my way back to the main corridors. I get back to my room and by then I've completely defrosted. I'm irritated at the fact that I only have one set of clothes and have to stay in these soaking wet ones. Nonetheless, I lie down to stretch my sore body. Cato walks in about an hour later.

"Ah, there you are. I've been looking everywhere for you- Why are you soaking wet?" He asks.

"I was in a freezer for god knows how long."

"Ouch. Come on, you have a visitor."

"Who?"

"You'll see. Come on, let's get you some dry clothes." I follow him out to of my room into a warm storeroom with loads of clothes in them.

"Here, put these on." He says, handing me some new, warm clothes. I thank him before he leaves to let me get changed. I exit the room a few moments later and follow him to his office. In there, I see… my mum, sitting in one of the chairs.


	33. Chapter 33 Lies

In the last chapter, I never said thanks for all the favourites and follows, it means a lot to me. So, thanks. Now, with that out if the way, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

I get quite confused when I see mum sitting in there.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" I ask her, walking over to her and giving her a hug.

"Mr Collins said that he had something that he had to tell me about you. What are you doing here?" She replies.

"I work here." She nods.

"Please, sit," Cato says, gesturing to the chairs. We sit down and I get even more confused.

'What's going on?' Is one of the thoughts rolling around inside my head. 'What is Cato up to?' Is another.

"Now," Cato says. "If I'm correct, the man sitting across from you is your son, James?"

"Yes." mum replies.

"But your son is currently 15. But he looks to be in his mid-twenties. How is that?"

"It's a long story."

'Where are you going with this?' I think.

"Now, Mrs Clarke. I have something to tell you that might come as a shock."

"What?"

"This… isn't your son."

"Cato. What are you doing?" I ask, now starting to get a bit angry.

"What do you mean?" "I assume that Mr Phillips has told you a story about him having acid blood, a Xenomorph friend and that he was kidnapped by Xenomorphs and hived?"

"Yes. How do you know all this?"

"Ma'am, I have reason to believe that the man sitting beside you isn't your son. In truth, he is the one most likely to be the cause of his disappearance. If you need any proof, his credentials are all in here." He hands mum a folder. I take a peek and see everything. I mean everything, name, age, date of birth, as well as all the other things you need to create a person. My mum looks at me, confusion turning to sadness, turning to rage.

"It's people like you who make me sick." She says. She slaps me. Hard. I'm completely dumbstruck. Hundreds of emotions running through my brain, some of them multiplied, like anger and sadness, by the Xenomorph in my blood. I can hear Cato still talking but I'm not paying much attention, something about dealing with this themselves or something. Before I know what's happening, she's gone.

"Now that that's out of the way, we can get back to work." I look back at him. He's completely passive about what he just did. He opens a letter with an opener and leaves it on the table, within arm's reach. In a split second, the letter opener is in my hand. In another, it's on the table right where his hand was.

"Did you really think I'd leave a weapon in your reach by accident? No. I just wanted to see what you would do."

'Just walk away.' I hear, in my head. I get up and head for the door. I reach for the handle but stop. Time seems to slow as my brain argues over what to do.

'Kill him.' One-half of me says.

'Just let it go, there's no point.' Says the other.

"Are you gonna leave or are you just gonna stand there like an idiot?".

'Just let it go.'

"no," I mumble under my breath. I turn and launch myself towards Cato, clearing the desk. In an instant, I'm on my back and he's standing with the letter still in his hand.

"That it?" he ask, clearly unimpressed.

Logic gives away to a complete rage that I've never felt before. I get up and swing. He easily dodges. I keep on swinging and, after a moment, I start kicking. By now, he's put the letter down and I have his full attention. I barely land anything as his speed is unparalleled to anything I've ever seen. I finally manage to land a few, square in the nose which dazes him. I grab his head and bash it against the wall and then my knee and then the wall some more. I realise he's laughing.

"Go on, Make the kill-count two." He says, making me stop.

"You're a fucking psychopath," I say.

"Are you only realising this now?" He coughs. I step back.

"No. I'm not playing your sick game."

"Very well." He grabs something from under the desk, an air canister. All of a sudden, I hear a hiss and I'm on the floor in seconds.

"Wow, that neurotoxin does a number on people." I hear as my vision fades to black.


	34. chapter 34 Deception

I'm gonna try a new way of writing that should make it easier to read.

I wake up on a cold, metal operating table with two very long, big needle like things nery near the sides of my head, which is pounding like nothing I've ever felt.

"Ah, you're finally awake." Cato says as he walks into my view.

"Untie me you son of a bitch, so I can kill you right now." I growl at him, filled to the brim with rage. He chuckles.

"Now, why would I do that? I've something much better lined up for you. That is, if you survive the process."

"What are you gonna do? Ruin my life more than you already have?"

"Yes."

"And how are you gonna do that?"

"That would ruin the surprise. Now, sit back and enjoy the experience."

He goes over to a laptop and starts typing. Suddenly, the machines over my head whir to life, positioning the needles close to my head. I don't have any fear of needles at all, but these ones worried me.

"Have fun." he says happily as he starts the process. I feel more then see the needles, since I can no longer turn my head. It is, by far, very very far, the most excruciating thing I have ever felt. I soon black out from the pain.

I wake up in a different room, although, it is still cold. I exit to see Cato standing outside.

"Ah, you're awake. I wasn't sure if you were gonna make it. How do you feel?" He says happily.

"Fine. although, it does feel as if there's something missing, something I'm supposed to be feeling, yet, I'm not."

"That's normal. Come on, let's get something to eat." I follow him down the halls.

"We had to change the needles during the procedure. It came as quite a surprise when we found out you had acid blood."

"What did you even do?"

"That's not important." We reach the canteen.

"I'll get you some food." He says. I stand there and look around for a moment. I see the guys who tried to kill me in that freezer. They spot me too and walk over.

"Well well, would you look who it is." Says the big one whose nose I broke.

"Yeah, It's the jackasses who tried to kill me and failed. Twice."

"Yeah, well we're not gonna fail again." A different one says.

"Oh really, Well, if that's the case then let me eat a final meal. My one request."

"Hey James, what do you want?" Calls Cato, from the counter.

"Can I have a steak please." I reply. He gives me a thumbs up and turns back to the woman behind the counter. Surprisingly, they let me eat. Sadly, they don't see me slip the steak knife into my sleeve.

"Now that that's over, let's get down to business." Says the big guy.

"Well, there's one problem with that."

"What?"

"You can't kill me if you're already dead." Without waiting for a response, I slip the knife out of my sleeve and slice the guys' throat, he falls to the ground, choking on his blood. Before he even hits the ground, I've flipped the knife and buried it into the stomach of the one standing behind me. I pull out the knife and shove it upward from under the chin of one of them who tries to swing at me. They then grab me and pull the knife out of my hand. Two of them hold my arms while the last goes to stab me with the knife. I let him and in seconds, his hand is gone. The guy on my left loosens his grip a bit in surprise and I pull my arm out. I then wrap my legs around the one to my right and, holding it firmly with my hands, I bend it back as far as it'll go and further. It makes a sickening crunch and I let go. The other one just legs it. I walk over to the one with the melted hand and grab his head. I start to push my thumbs into his eyes, making him scream out in agonizing pain. All the while, grinning in freakish enjoyment.

"Please, just don't kill me." Whimpers the last one. I smile.

"Oh, don't worry, I have something, how did ye put it, ah yes, colder for you." his eyes narrow when he realises what I'm planning to do. I grab him by the collar and drag him back to the room with the big freezer in it. While he cries calls out for help.

"What's the matter? No more friends to save you? Oh yes. I just killed them all, didn't I." I say happily. "Terribly sorry for your loss." We finally reach it.

"Please don't. I'm sorry." He pleads.

"Oh, ya think saying sorry is gonna change anything? No, You should have thought of that before you tried to kill me. Twice." He starts to plead for his life as I open the lid. then cries as I lift him over the edge. He goes under. He tries to struggle, which just ends up with the rest of him falling in, making my job much easier. He thrashed about for one minute. Two minutes. Three. And then… nothing. I pull out my hands to see they've turned back to that black colour that they were when I was in there, but slowly turn normal again. I close the lid and walk away, feeling quite pleased with myself.


	35. chapter 35

I head back to the canteen.

"Not bad," Cato compliments. "Not too much blood, nice amount of pain. All in all, nice. Good thinking with letting one of them melt their own hand off."

"Thanks?" I reply, not knowing if I should be grateful about the compliment or worried about the fact that I was able to murder all these men somewhat efficiently.

What am I thinking?' I think to myself.

"You alright?" Cato asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just feels weird."

He chuckles. "It'll pass."

Nothing much happens for the rest of the day, until that night. For some reason, I can't get to sleep. It feels as if there is something wrong, terribly wrong, in my head.

'Well, more than usual.' I think to myself. I turn around to catch, with the corner of my eye, a shadow move down the corridor. Since I have nothing better to do, and because no one is ever up at this time, I decide to follow it. Staying a bit behind, just enough so I won't lose it, I follow this person up the stairs to the ground floor. From here, they move up to the highest floor they can and go to the very top corner of the warehouse. Here, through a hole in the wall, they exit onto the roof. I follow them out to get a knife in front of my throat. I look over to see that it's clara, who lowers the knife when she realises it's me.

"Hey," she says.

"Hi," I reply. "What are you doin'?" I ask her.

"Well, I come out here sometimes to clear my head. Mostly at night, so no one finds this place," she answers. "You?"

"Couldn't sleep and I saw you passing."

"So you followed me?" She asks, arms crossed and an annoyed face on her.

"Pretty much,"

"You're weird," She smiles.

"I say this way too much, but, You're only figuring this out now?"

"Pretty much." I chuckle.

"It's nice here," I say after a moment of silence, staring at the stars in the dark blue sky, illuminated by the colony below.

"Yeah. It's peaceful," She replies. I nod in agreement. "Tell anyone about this place and I'll chop your balls off," She threatens and I cross my legs. She laughs a small bit at this. "That is, if you have any."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask, smiling slightly.

"Nothing, nothing. Just that I probably have more balls than most of the guys here, including you," she comments.

"You're poking the wrong bear."

"Fine then. If you want to prove that you actually have a pair then show me."

"Alright then, pick something, anything," I challenge.

She looks out to the forest for a moment. "Ya see that tree over there?" she asks, pointing to the one that seems to be the largest of them all.

"Yeah."

"I want to meet you there at noon tomorrow. The first one up is not only the best climber, but is less of a bitch than the other."

"Well than, prepare to lose. Oh and, since I owe ya one, your secret is safe with me." she gives me a thumbs up.

"See ya there. If you don't show or are late, you are disqualified."

I turn to leave when she asks me, "If you could leave. Would you?" I think for a moment.

"I don't know. I have no reason to. Why?"

"Why do you think?"

"Hm. Good point."

"Don't tell anyone about this conversation." I nod.

"I owe ya one, remember." She thanks me and reminds me to be there by noon.

And that's what I did. I got there well before noon and looked for the best course of action to tackle this tree. The branches seem to be going up in a sort of spiral from what I can tell. Soon after that, near noon, Clara arrives.

"How long have you been here?" she asks.

"About three hours," I reply.

"You do realise that we're not supposed to be here for another half an hour right?" I nod. "Okay, since we're both here now, will we just start now?" I agree and we get ready to climb. "On three." "One…" There's a pause that's far longer than three seconds. "THREE!" she suddenly shouts, trying to catch me out. I speed up the tree, quickly taking the lead. I get about a quarter of the way up before I start to slow a bit. Clara wastes no time in catching up, and then taking the lead. I suddenly realise what's happened and start to worry a small bit. Thinking about ways I could slow her down, I notice that there's a lot of pine cones around me. I grab a few and fling them at her.

"Hey!" Is all I hear as she stops, losing her grip slightly. quickly overtake her. Shortly after I reach about halfway, I start to see pine cones fly past me, some of them hitting me.

"That's my trick," I shout down to her without stopping.

"Did you get it copyrighted? I think not," she replies. Even with pine cones being thrown at me for the rest of the way up, I succeed. I meet her in the tree.

"Looks like you're the loser. Lil' bitch," I mock.

"You are such a sore winner," she remarks.

"That's because I don't win much." I say as I make my way down the tree. I get to the bottom and wait for Clara to work her way down.

"You're one helluva climber," she comments.

"I am very good at it aren't I? Runs in the family, I guess."

"How so?"

"Well, my extended family. They are, well were, I don't really talk to them much anymore, really good climbers." She nods in acknowledgement and we head back.


	36. chapter 36 Darkness

Hello. sorry for the absence. as you might know, i brke my laptop and I'm still working on getting it fixed. I didn't realise that i could upload new chapters on the mobile app now, last time I checked, you couldn't. so, now that I've figured this out, I'm gonna upload them this way. Anyways, I'll let you get back to the story. i hope you enjoy reading it!!!!

We get back at around quarter to two and go our separate ways. Someone sees us just before we separate and approaches me.

"Keep on going and you'll be in her pants in no time." He says to me. I roll my eyes at him as I walk past, heading back to my room. That night, I didn't sleep well again. In fact, I didn't sleep at all. The feeling of something being terribly wrong, of something missing, haunted me every time I closed my eyes. Somewhere at, what I think is midnight, I decided to ask Cato what he actually did to me when I was in that room.

"Hey, Cato?" I call to him in the canteen, the next day.

"Yes?" He asks, still a bit sleepy.

"I was wondering. Remember when I was in the room, getting that... thing done?"

"Yes. What about it?"

"What exactly did you do?"

"Well, I did something to make you more combat efficient."

"Which was?"

"I implanted a chip in your head that, when activated, blocks out most emotions apart from anger and fear."

"Sorry, what?"

"It's fine. Look, you've been through a lot, I understand. I know what you went through in the hive and, to be honest, I'm just trying to help you." I don't believe him. He puts his hands on my shoulder. "Look. Think of this as a step towards a normal life. I mean, that's what you want, isn't it?"

"I guess." I reply, still a bit skeptical.

"You'll be fine." This eliminates my worries, for some reason. I nod. "There ya go. Now, get something to eat. You have a long day ahead of you."

"What am I gonna be doin'?"

"Think of it as an initiation."

"Okay," I say before walking away.

Later, someone finds me and brings me to an area of the complex that I've never seen before. 'I guess this is what he meant by initiation,' I think.

"So, you're gonna be pitted against some animals first, which won't be judged. And then people, which will," says the person who guided me here.

"Judged?"

"Coliseum rules. Thumbs up, you live, thumbs down, you die. Understand?" I nod. "Good. Go get 'em tiger," he says before suddenly pushing me into the arena. There's an assortment of weapons on the floor in front of me. Swords, maces, clubs, knives and hammers. I choose the knives, picking them up and slotting them into my belt. The first few rounds were easy since the first thing the animals tried to do is bite my arm off, leaving their main line of defence, and half their face, gone. Although, the bear when they pit me against a bear, I get beaten around a lot. Next, are people. The first two are easy, easier than the animals, in fact. Since all they did was run straight at me and got stabbed in the face. Then, they start to get coordinated. The next two I pretty much fly through. Then the third, and last, it seems. He's big, at least twice my size and is holding a massive sword. He slowly makes his way to me, clearly planning his attack. He swings at me, which I dodge. I get a closer look to see that most of his body was armoured.

'He must be pretty fucking strong,' I think to myself. The only weakness I see in that short time is his neck. For some reason, people never protect their neck. I try to get behind him, but it just isn't happening. Getting an idea, I back up before running straight at him. This catches him off guard for a moment until he snaps out of it and swings his sword downwards. I slide in between his legs and get back up onto my feet. I climb up into his back and start to stab his neck repeatedly. He lands on the floor and it's clear that I've killed him, breaking his neck, but I keep going. I take a strange enjoyment out of this and start to laugh a small bit. I stop after a while to realise that with all the stabbing, I've covered myself in his blood.

"You did well," I hear Cato call from a stand. Before then, I didn't notice he was there.

"Can I go now?" I ask him. He shakes his head.

"One last opponent. Someone from your past." Thinking it's one of my family, my life drains from me.

'He wouldn't be that cruel, would he?' I think to myself. I see the portcullis open and start to smile crazily. "Perfect." I mumble.

'James?' I hear in my head. Dauntless starts to walk over to me, slowly gaining speed until she's on all fours. She suddenly turns left when my boot connects with her face.

"Hiya sweetie. Ya missed me?" I say, approaching her. She tries to get up until I kick her again.

"James? What are you doing?'

"Sorry but your James isn't home right now." I can't stop smiling as I kick her again, and again.

"He's been replaced by me."

'What have they done to you?'

"They've... enlightened me. I've just realised that it's not a chip in my head. Cato just put something else up here, something twisted. The one you're talking to, and frankly, I like it."

'You're sick.'

"Probably." I go to kick her again. She grabs my leg and pulls me off my feet before I can.

'I'm not gonna kill you, but I'm not gonna let you hurt me either,' She, claws raised.

"Then you're only delaying the inevitable." We trade punches for a good five minutes before I tackle her to the ground and start to pummel her face.

"And ya know what the best part is?" I stop to let her speak, which she doesn't. "ANSWER ME!" I shout.

'What?' She says, clearly in pain, physical and emotional. In fact, I can feel it, just like she did before she ruined my life. I lean in close.

"He's still up here, your James. Struggling and struggling. I've felt it since the operation. Recently though, he stopped. I'm pretty sure he's lost his fight." I start to feel her sadness radiating from her. Her own boyfriend, the one SHE lied to. This is her fault. That must make it hurt even more. She looks at me with a horrified, bloody, broken face.

'James,' Shesays, starting to cry. 'Please stop.'

I start to smile, which turns into a snigger, then a laugh "Y-You think I'm gonna stop? After what you did to me? No. No, I'm gonna kill you." She just flops her head to the floor, no hope left in her, I lay her on her back and pin her hands down. It must be uncomfortable with her spines pushing against the floor and, to be honest, the more uncomfortable the better. I scooch up a bit and place my knee over her neck, choking her. It takes a while but she starts to lose consciousness.. "G'night," I giggle. I feel it, she's gone. I killed her. And it felt good. I get up and leave.

I go back to my room and sleep like a log that night.


	37. chapter 37 Mistakes

I go back to my room and sleep like a log that night. Well, I sleep for about five minutes before I wake up with only one thought on my mind: Find Dauntless. I get out of bed and race down the halls, barreling through people, letting nothing get in my way.

'Where would they put her? They couldn't just dump her on the side of the street because then someone would check around and find something's up so what would they do?' I think to myself. I stop and let out a small gasp when I remember the incinerator. Since I've been going in the opposite direction, I turn around on my heels and, again, barrel down the hallway. I reach the incinerator to find that there's no one here.

"Looking for something?" Asks a voice behind me, Claras' voice. I try to calm for a moment before I answer.

"Uh yeah. Do you know if there's any other places where someone might uuh… dump a dead Xeno?"

"Why?"

"If I told you that, I'd have to kill you." I say, hoping that I don't ruin this for myself by letting any of the number of emotions running through my head leak into my voice.

"Yeah, sure you could," she says, sarcastically." "There's one other incinerator that they'd probably use."

"Could you show me to it?"

"Why should I?"

"Because I'll help you get out of here," I say, throwing out all my cards onto the table.

"And how would you do that?"

"I'll explain later, but right now, I need to get to that other incinerator so please, show me the way." By now, you'd probably be able to taste my desperation, there was so much in my voice. She ponders for a moment.

"Alright, fine. Come on." I let go of the breath that I didn't know that I was holding.

"Thank you so much."

"Yeah, well, after I show you the way, you're gonna tell me how you plan to get me outta here." I nod and she walks back down the hall. She seems to realise that I'm in a hurry and picks up the pace. It turns out that it's on the other side of the warehouse and we get there just as two guys pick up something that could only be Dauntless to throw her into the flames.

"Stop!" I shout and thankfully, they pause to see me running up to them.

"Oh hey, you're the one who killed it, aren't ya?" Asks one of the two.

"Yeah," I say.

"Ya come to throw it in or what?" the other one asks.

"Not exactly." They both look at me with confused looks. "I came to save it." Now they're both pissing themselves laughing. That is, until I slid my knife across their throats. I decided to keep one on me since I got ganged up on the second time. Just in case.

"What are you doing!" shouts Clara, who has now joined me by my side. I kneel down beside dauntless.

"I can't explain it here, it'd take too long but if you want my help then watch the door." she looks at me before looking back at the two bodies and then back to me before nodding and walking over to the door.

"Please don't be dead." I mumble, trying to think of something to bring her back. 'There's something I can do, I know it.' I think to myself. I start to panic until I decide to try CPR. Even though I was never trained how, I vaguely knew what to do. I position myself and try once, nothing. Twice, nothing. I start to curse under my breath after the fourth try. I half-hear clara asking me what I'm doing as I look around the room for anything I can use. I notice a plug socket on the wall. 'DANGER. Extremely high voltage' Says a sign over it.

"James, there're people coming. Whatever you're gonna do, do it now." I curse again, out loud this time, before dragging dauntless over to the socket. I pull out the knife and wrap Dauntless' hand around it, holding it in place with mine.

"Oh, this is gonna hurt," I mumble before shoving the blade into the wall. Nothing seems to happen for a moment, but then I realise that we've been thrown across the room, me hitting my head against a low-lying pipe. I stand, still very dizzy. I look around to see Dauntless nearby, I run over to her, nearly falling as I do. I hold her for a moment, hoping that something will happen. Nothing does.

"Oh Dauntless, I'm so sorry," I say with a shaky voice before holding her close to me. I start to cry for a moment until I feel a hand creep up the back of my head.

'Apology accepted.' I sit back to see a very alive Xeno smiling back at me. I hug her close to me again.

"I'm so sorry," I say to her.

'It's okay. After all, it was my fault in the first place.'

I shake my head. "No. It isn't."

"Hate to break up your little reunion, but we're about to have company." Calls Clara, from the door.

"Right. Are you able to stand?" I ask. She nods and I help her up. I keep a close eye on her since she's still quite shaky. I pick up the now smoldering knife and wait for them to come through the door.


	38. Chater 38 Sacrifice

"What's our play?" Asks Clara.

"I don't know," I reply.

"You trying to escape and you don't even have a plan?"

"Yup. Why do you think I brought you?"

"UGH! Right, you, climb up behind the door, I don't want to reveal all of our cards straight away," Clara instructs, pointing at Dauntless. she nods before climbing up the wall, hidden in the darkness. Clara goes up to the door, hiding behind it. They enter, there's about five of them in total.

"Who are you?" Asks one of them.

"I'm James. And you are?" I ask politely. Since the incinerator is around a corner, they don't see the two bodies. Yet.

"We're the maintenance crew looking after the incinerator. It's due for an inspection."

I shift around on my feet. "Can it wait?"

"Why?"

"Because I asked nicely?"

"No. It's being done now. We don't need the boss on our ass." With that, they go to walk past me.

I notice Clara mouthing the words 'Leg it'. I nod.

'What's happening?' Asks dauntless, who I forgot was there. Before I can answer, I hear a few shouts behind me and turn to see two of them running towards me. I turn and bolt through the door, Clara and Dauntless close behind.

'So, who's she?' Asks dauntless, in my head.

'A friend. She's helping us get out of here,' I reply.

'Just a friend?'

'This really isn't the place or time to have this conversation.'

'You're right, sorry,'

We get through a good bit of the tunnels before an alarm starts to blare out, alerting everyone. I curse under my breath as I see someone round a corner, then two more come from another. They quickly realise what's going on and arm themselves. I tackle the one closest to me, stabbing him numerous times. I turn to see that dauntless has literally shredded the other two.

"Which way?" I ask, still not on familiar ground.

"Down here," clara replies, pointing left. We go down the corridor and meet surprisingly little resistance. Clara, now beside me, gives me a worried glance, which I return.

'What's wrong?' Asks Dauntless, catching my look.

'There should be much more people here, I don't like it.' I reply. I look back to see a guy rounding a corner, carrying a crossbow. Quickly analysing the situation, I realise that there's no way that we'd be able to dodge him for long. I flip my knife onto the blade and pull my arm back and aim. I throw it, letting it gliding out of my hand. It hits him dead centre of his chest. I quickly celebrate before turning back and continuing on.

'Holy shit, that was fucking cool,' I think to myself We're nearly at the stairs to the ground floor when about ten guys approach from behind, with guns, and start shooting at us. Since I'm now in the back, I get hit. A lot. I tumble and get back up. Dauntless looks back to see me and stops.

'James!' she cries, running back to me.

"Dauntless, you need to go." I say.

'No, not without you,' she goes to pick me up but I stop her.

"You'll never get out of here with them on your tail and they'll kill you straight. Trust me, your chances are better this way."

'I'm not leaving you.' she says. All the while, they're getting closer and their bullets gain accuracy.

"Dauntless," I say, grabbing her shoulders. "I'll make my own way out. Go!" Reluctantly, she nods before turning and flying up the stairs. I try to stand to only fall and end up in a low-ish stance. I manage to get a few hits in before they inevitably overpower me. I'm brought to a big holding cell with a strange looking material on the walls and they chain me up in the middle of it.

"Well done," I say. Well, a teenage version of me who's leaning against the wall near the door.


	39. chapter 39 Retaliation

Anything in bold is said/thought by James' crazy counterpart and then maybe some other characters down the line.

b"You got yourself in an even worse shitshow than before."/b

"Good to know that I've finally gone insane." I say.

b"And not only that. You let her go. What the fuck were you thinking?"/b He continues, ignoring me.

"I was thinking 'Save Dauntless'. What did you think I was thinking?"

b"Well, nicely done. You let the person that not only lied to us, but destroyed our lives, go!"/b

"She made a mistake."

b"She she lied to us."/b

"She did it out of fear of losing us."

b"She still lied to us. She tore us away from our family. How can you forgive her?"/b

"She had three choices; Number one, let us go and risk someone believing us and attacking the hive. Number two, Kill us. Or number three, Bring us somewhere where we'll be safe and, hopefully, happy. Which one would you pick?"

b"That doesn't excuse what she did. And you know which one I'd pick"/b

"She could've killed us! But she didn't. She saw a child who was sad, heartbroken even, and she showed mercy. She chose the better option. And that's more than I can say for you would've done."

b"I wouldn't have gone into some random kids room."/b

"She needed to know for sure that it wasn't cato."

b"She should've let us be."/b

"There is no us! You're just a bi-product of a spychopaths' meddling."

b"Yeah, well, you're stuck with me now so ya might as well get used to it."/b

"When did I become such an asshole?" I mumble to myself.

b"You do realise mumbling something won't make a difference. I'm in your head, I know what you're thinking."/b There was silence for a moment until the door opens and Cato walks in.

"Well. This is a surprise," He says.

"I'm gonna kill you," I reply plainly.

"Sadly, you can't. Being chained up and all."

"Well then. I guess I have some work to do." By now, the other me is gone.

"You will indeed. You won't be communicating to the hive either, this room is made out stuff that blocks their telepathy. So, you're on your own."

"I've gotten this far."

"But not on your own."

"I'll manage."

"Well. I wish you luck." I get a bit confused at this until I remember that he's insane. "Bye. Enjoy your stay." He says before leaving.

I have many other conversations like these over the next few days. Some with the other me, some with cato. In between these I do most, if not all, of their heavy lifting. Any job that's risky to perform, they make me do it. They beat me whenever I do something they didn't like, even if it's stop for a piss. They only feed me enough to keep me alive. All of the hatred from these actions being stored for later use.

A day passes. A week. A month. Month three. I'm having a conversation with myself.

"If you could do anything, what would it be?" I ask him. I've started asking him these kind of questions a few days ago, just out of curiosity. Most of the time, the answer being something gruesome.

b"Kill Dauntless. Again"/b

"I thought we were past that."

b"We are. I just enjoy the look on your face whenever I say that."/b

"Ass. If you could have one superpower, what would it be?"

/b"To be able to get another body and get out of here. Away from the retardness that is you."/b

"Fuck off." I remember something. From while I still was working for Cato. One night, I half turned into a Xeno. I ran to the bathroom and managed to reverse it.

'How did I manage to forget about this?' I think to myself

b"You really think it'll work?"/b He asks me.

"What choice do we have?." I sit back, crossed legged. I focus on what I want, picturing it in my mind. All of a sudden, my hand shifts unnaturally, every bone reorganising itself. First my hand, then the other, then my arms, my back, legs and tail, all at once. The very first time, it was one at a time, this time, it's all at once. And is excruciating. As it slows, I stand.

'I won't be your SLAVE ANY LONGER!' I scream. It came out as a heart stopping shriek, escalating in volume as it went on. but everyone knew what it meant, they had to. I start to pull on the chains. Harder than ever before. They groan under the pressure but are no match for my new strength. The snap, makiing me stumble slightly. I look around and see people oin the other side of a thick glass wall. I can smell them, their fear, their curiosity. Some had the right idea and ran for the door, locking it as they left. The others, too caught up in their new discovery, didn't notice. From snippetrs of conversation, I dscovered that the walls may have blocked my telepathy, but were made from a surprisinlgy non-acid proof metal. I walk up to the glass. The observers, now realising what I intend, race to the door to only find it locked. I slam my fists against it. Once, a small crack forms. Twice, it widens. I repeat this process many times until my fist actually goes through it. I take a fwe steps back before running forward and diving at the large crack in the glass, smashing through. The observers, now given up on opening the door, try to knock it down. I walk over and grab one, ripping his neck off his head with a satisfying, bloody, wet rip. Another, I pull out his spine. The last one, now cowering in a nearby corner, starts to plead for his life.

"Please don't." He says. "I have a family." Him being the one in charge of feeding me, I hated the most. He'd always do something with the food. Piss on it, Bring me it rotten. I was so hungry. It didn't take them long to find out that I didn't need to eat much either. After that, he would leave feeding me for, usually two weeks. I'd always be starving when they'd feed me. And when I was near death, they would give me good, proper food, twice in a row, before going back to starving me. I kneel down in front of him, thinking of what to do to make his death as painful as possible.

'Hungry,' I carve into the floor. He looks at it, then at me.

"You want food? I'll get you some." He says, calming down slightly. I shake my head. "What do you want?" He then asks, now with even more fear. I chuckle, well, as well as I can, it terrifies him to the bone. I point my clawed finger at him. The colour drains from his face. He starts to plead for his life again.

"No. Please, no. i swear, I'll get you some food. Please."

b'Hungry… so, so hungry,'/b I think to myself. Finally deciding on how to kill him, I bring my tail up to his face, making him whimper. I grab his jaw, pulling it open. I slowly push my tail into his mouth down his throat, making him gag and choke on his blood. I let go of his mouth and bring my claws to my tail, pushing the tips of them into it, drawing blood. He starts to scream as the acid burns his insides. Once my tail has gone as far as it will go without going out his ass, I check to see that he is still alive, although barely. He is so weak now that he struggles to bring his eyes to meet mine. I smile as I violently pull my tail backward, ripping through his mouth, chest and stomach. He falls to the ground, dead. I grimace at my tail, which is now covered with a mixture of his blood, spit and sick. I look back at him.

b'Hungry…'/b I bring me head close to his corpse, letting the smell of his blood and flesh fill my senses. This sends me over the edge and I plunge into him,, devouring his insides. After a while, a group of heavily-armed men enter my cell. I look over to them and see the looks of horror on their faces at what i've done. I stand, multiplying their fear. I roar loudly, louder than before. Anyone that didn't hear me earlier, definitely heard me now.


	40. chapter 40 Freedom

DAMN, Forty chapters! I didn't even think it'd get it to twenty. Anyways, let's get on with the story.

I lunge, grabbing two of them and slamming them into the floor and in doing so, flatten their chests. I take out another one with my tail, slicing through his insides. I grab one and slam his face into the wall. Once, twice, Three times, before he stops moving. The last, I end with my secondary jaw, leaving a clementine-sized hole through his head. I race off down the corridor, meeting much more resistance than before although, not enough to stop me. At first, I act strategically, then, after about fifteen minutes of non-stop bloodbath, I let loose, instinct taking over. It takes me a while to finally get close to the exit. I pass a glass window and stop to take a look. Upon further inspection, I notice that it's extremely thick. Thicker than the one in my cell. I also notice something lurking in the back. Then I remember; the predalien. This is his cage. I step back from the glass before pushing my tail as far in as I can. Of course it didn't go the whole way through, but it left quite a crack. I start to hammer at the glass, widening the crack. It approaches me and I stop, studying it for a moment. It is definitely taller than me and looks terrifying. Then it starts to beat at the glass too. I start doing it again.

Soon, the glass starts to give and we stop. It takes a few steps back and so do I, realising what he intends. I see men round the corner and I get ready to end some more lives. It smashes through the glass, making the men stop in their tracks. He roars. It's loud, louder than anything that I'd ever be able to do. The people slowly start to back up, before turning tail and running. It starts to go after them but I grab his shoulder, stopping him.. He turns to me and I shake my head. He then lowers his slightly, purring softly I give his shoulder a little squeeze before turning to go towards the exit, motioning for it, him, to follow. He seems to understand and follows. As I get to the top step, an arrow pierces my foot, pinning me for a moment. It quickly burns away, and I step back. It took me by surprise. I check to see that if the other alien in beside me, which he is. I run for it, arrows, bullets, every kind of projectile imaginable, flying past me. I get to the large door and start to pound against it, slowly breaking through. All of a sudden, I rear a loud bang as the predalien slams his body against the door, leaving a massive dent in it. He steps back for another run up. He hits it, this time partially breaking through. He rips and tears the rest of the way to our freedom. I look back at my feeble attempt for a moment, comparing them. I made very little progress, only a few holes here and there. I feel a pain shoot up my leg as something pierces it, snapping me out of my trance. I step through the hole in the wall and race through the carpark to the fence. I quickly scale it and disappear across the road.

I run. I run for three days straight, heading east, towards the Weyland Yutani compound. The other alien went his own way. Once I get there, I find it in ruins. As I enter, I see clear signs of a firefight. I head to the canteen and find nothing but death. Xenos, Wey-Yu personnel and catos' men, all mixed together, all dead. I notice a strange light coming from one of the tables near the center of the room. It was hard to miss since all the lights were out. I walk over to it to find that it's a data-pad.

'James.' It reads. 'It's clara. When we got here, it was already like this. I had no idea that Catos' people even hit here. We found a message from someone named sarah saying to head northeast. Your friend seems quite eager to go. If you're seeing this, that's where we've gone. I hope you're okay.' Seeing this, a wave of relief hits me.

It takes me another two days to reach some suitable ground where a hive is likely to be set up. High, difficult to access for anything else, tons of foliage. I'm searching around for the hive when I notice something in the corner of my eye. It's Dauntless, sitting down at the top of a hill overlooking the forest below.. Deciding to be mean, I walk up behind her, not making a sound.

'Boo,' I whisper to her. She suddenly pushes me away as she turns around before tackling me to the ground, wrapping her arms around me. I laugh. 'Hey Dauntless.'


	41. chapter 41 Rewind

We ran. we ran for about four days, getting to the Weyland Yutani compound. Once we got there, we found it in ruins.

"Come on, let's go to the control room. We can probably find out what happened there," Clara says to me. I follow her around the place until we enter a big room with many panels, their use is unknown to me. Clara goes over to one of the consoles and starts to do something to it, pulling at wires underneath. After a moment, the screen lights up.

"Eureka," she says. She motions for me to come over. "Now. Most of the systems around the facility are bust but I've managed to get the backup storage working. Let's see if any of these files peak our interest." We go through files for about an hour with nothing to show for it. All the video has been wiped, the door monitors showing nothing wrong, heck, even the clocking system has been automated. Most of this, I was informed of by Clara since I can barely make out half of the stuff on the thing. After about a half an hour longer, we get to the last file. "Well, ya know what they say. The three hundred and sixty fourth file's the charm. She opens it and the screen turns blank. Then a voice starts playing; Sarahs' voice.

"If you're hearing this then you're either a friend of mine or you've come to investigate what happened. Either way, you'll want to know. The date is the twenty fourth of july, you probably know what year it is. One day before today, a man by the name Cato, a psychopath, attacked this place. They killed whoever stood in their way, no matter who it was. Eventually, they found what they were looking for and kidnapped my child. Dauntless, or James, for that matter, if you're hearing this then head north-east. That's the way I'm heading with my family. If not, then don't follow me. Trust me when I say that I'll be fine. Anyway, as you probably noticed, there's a lot of dead Xenomorphs. Don't worry, you're gonna be fine. None of them are stupid enough to stay here. Believe me. So, with that out of the way, This console, and any in this facility are going to go into lockdown. And when they do, I've rigged the generators to destroy themselves. Enjoy." With that, the console powers down and a horribly loud scream of metal-on-metal rings out as the generators fail. All the lights that were still working go out, surrounding us in complete darkness. A scent fills the room, fear. I look over to see Clara looking around nervously.

"Yeah, I have a phobia of the dark so can we please leave?" I chuckle, which seems to spook her even more. Looking around, I spot a tube like thing. I can't remember the name of it but I know of its' purpose, to provide light. I head over to it. "Hey, where are you going?" Asks Clara, seeming to sense that I've left her side. I grab it and bring it back to her. Feeling cheeky, I get an idea. I gently take hold of her hand and place the torch in it. She seems to feel it for a moment. "A torch?" I make sure to stand in front of he when she turns it on and look as scary as possible. She clicks it on and I let out a loud hiss, directly in front of her face. She screams and jumps back, tripping over a chair. I laugh. "Ha Ha. Very funny," she says, not impressed with my actions. I help her up and go to leave. She stops me. "Can we have a look for food, I'm starving?" Reluctantly, I nod. I badly want to get back to the hive. We spend about an hour and a half looking for food and find some left in the canteen. While she eats from a can she found, I look around. I notice a small glow coming from under one of the many bodies littering the canteen floor. I move it to see a small, thin, rectangular object and pick it up.

"What's that?" Asks clara, who is now finished her food. I bring it over and place it down in front of her. She picks it up. "It's a data-pad. One of the employees must have been carrying this." I tilt my head at the 'Data-pad'. "It's like a really small personal computer." I nod even though I still don't understand, I simply don't care about what it is, only what's on it. "Anyway. We could leave a message for james on here." I perk up for a moment at the mention of his name. James, my love, life mate, killer and rescuer. That is, until I remember where we left him. In the hands of that psychopath, cato. I growl at the thought of his name. The one who twisted my love, turned him into something else and made him kill me. But, in the end, he broke through, the boy I fell in love with, the sweet little boy.

'If only he was here now,' I think to myself. 'I wonder what he'd say about that. Probably something along the lines of him being so amazing that he was able to break through whatever Cato did to him.' I smile at the thought.

"Thinking about him?" clara asks. I nod. "Here," She says, handing me the data-pad. "Type what you want to say." I give her a smile as I take it out of her hand.

'I'm worried for him,' I type.

"I get ya. Don't worry, he's a tough guy," She reassures, patting me on the shoulder.

'I know. But, the more I think about it, the more I blame myself. It's my fault he was even there in the first place.'

"What do you mean?"

'I'll start from the start.' So, I do. I explain it, everything, from the very start, to this very second.

"Well. I don't know what to say. So, you went into his room, thinking it was cato. You said that you could feel his emotions."

'Yes. I felt Catos' too. Although, I don't know why.'

"Neither do I. but look, what happened, happened. You panicked. It just shows how human you really are are."

'Thanks,' I say, feeling better now.

"No problem. Come on, we should get moving before it gets dark." We turn to leave. "Ooh, almost forgot!" I turn to see Clara writing something on the Data-pad. "Just so James can find us if he gets out. When he gets out." She puts it down and quickly returns to my side.

'Tis a little shorter than others recently but I thought it'd be a nice idea to put this in. I meant to put this in earlier. In fact, all the nice little ideas I've popped into the story every now and then were meant to go in earlier. Everything has its' time, I guess. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed!! If you see any mistakes that I've missed then point them out and I'll fix them ASAP.


	42. chapter 42 returns

It takes us about four days to get to the hive.

"Well then," she says, standing beside me outside of the hive. "I guess that this is where we go our separate ways." I nod, holding out my hand. She takes it in hers. "I wish you well, Dauntless." She walks away.

'Wait,' Says mother, in my head. 'I wish to speak to her.'

'Alright then.' I catch up with Clara, making her jump a small bit.

"Hi. I didn't see you there. What is it?" She asks. I turn and nudge her along beside me with my tail. She seems to get the idea and follows, but stops at the entrance. "You want me to go in there?" She gets a little spooked. I nod. "You do remember that I'm afraid of the dark, right?" I had forgotten that I accidentally sat on her torch, breaking it, a while after we left the Wey-Yu compound. I nudge her along with my tail, but when she refuses to move, I simply wrap it around her and whisk her off the ground. I then drop onto all-fours and race through the hive. It doesn't take long to get to mothers' chamber. I plop her down again.

'Welcome back, my child.'

'Hello, mother.'

'So, this is the one who helped you escape,' She says, looking at the now terrified woman standing beside me.

'Yes. She helped me to escape.'

'Bring her here to me.' I gently put my hand on her back but nonetheless, end up making her scream. I giggle a small bit before pushing her towards the queen. Mother holds out her hand in front of Clara. I gently put one of hers into mothers'. She lifts her up, placing her long head against Claras'.

'There's nothing to fear. There's nothing to fear.' I hear a new voice saying, repeating it over and over.

'Clara?' I call out.

"Who's there?"

'It's me, dauntless.'

"Dauntless? What's going on?"

'I have connected with you, Clara. Brought you into the hive mind,' Mother informs.

"Oh. Does this mean that i can speak to people using my thoughts?"

'No. We can speak to you, but you cannot reply.'

"Well, it's a good thing I have a voice then."

'Of course, this also means that I can read you like a book. Your thoughts, feelings. Your intentions.' Suddenly, I'm pushed out of the link and I hear Mother growl loudly as she says something only for Clara to hear. Afterwards, she smiles and hops down out of mothers arms.

"Well then. I guess I'm gonna be staying for a while," She says to me happily.

It's been three months since we escaped from that psychopath and there's still no sign of james. By now, I've lost all hope. I'm sitting at the top of a hill, looking down onto the lush, green forest below. I feel the presence of someone behind me. Ares.

'Look, Ares, I'm fine. Can you just leave me alone?' I ask, not turning to face him. Without a word, he moves forward and wraps his arms around me. 'GET OFF!' I shout, throwing him off me. I turn to see another face. Immediately, my mood skyrockets as I see James' face inches from mine. I jump on top of him, wrapping my arm around him in a hug.

'OH MY GOD, I'VE MISSED YOU SO MUCH!' I scream in delight. He laughs. When he gently pushes my arms apart, I realise how hard I was squeezing him. I stand and help him up before hugging him again. 'Where have you been?' I ask him. He doesn't answer. 'James.' Still nothing. 'James? Helloooo?' I click my fingers in front of his face, making him step back a small bit. He moves as if he was talking but there's no answer. 'James, cut it out and start speaking,' I say, arms crossed in annoyance. Yet, he still doesn't answer.

'Hey Dauntless,' I say, laughing. I gently pushing at her arms trying to get her to stop squeezing me so hard. She lets go of me and stands up. All she does is stand there, not saying a word. All of a sudden, she starts to click her fingers in front of my face. I take a step back. 'what?' no reply. 'Dauntless, what is it? Do you want an apology for me killing you?' Nothing.

'well, I'm sorry.' she just stands there, arms crossed. My fears start to surface. I worried that this might happen. I kneel down to the ground, motioning for Dauntless to come over. She does. With a finger, I write 'queen' in the ground. I look up to her and she nods before getting up to go inside the hive.

I follow her deep inside, people giving me looks of disbelief when they recognise. Others of annoyance. 'I guess a lot of people were glad I was gone,' I think to myself. It takes us a while to get to mothers' chamber. She smiles when she sees me. She briefly looks at Dauntless before looking back to me, one speaking to the other. She holds out her hand to me, which I gladly take. She pulls me up, placing her head on mine. I get a small headache as she pushes into my mind. I offer as little resistance as possible. It stops.

'Welcome back, my child,' Mother smiles.

'Hey,' I reply. She puts me down. I walk over to Dauntless and give her the biggest hug I can. 'I'm so sorry.'

'It's okay. Besides, it's my fault you're even here,' She replies while returning the hug. I pull back to look at her in the face.

'There's nothing wrong in making a mistake. It only shows how human you are.'

'How long have you been practicing that line?'

'Ever since I escaped.' She smile.

'Come on. They're gonna be glad you're here.' With that, dauntless takes my hand and leads me away.

'Fucking try anything and I'll kill you,'I think to myself. My other side, as I've started to call it, leaks through a bit.


	43. chapter 43 Memories

Hello! Please excuse me if these next few chapters are a bit on the short side, I'm writing them on my phone and it's hard to judge how long they are. But, man, it's good to be back Anyways, hope you enjoy!!!!

We exit the chamber and take a few turns before stopping, Sarah and Ares are having a conversation, it doesn't seem like they've noticed us yet. I lean a bit closer to Dauntless.

'Ya think they'll recognise me?' I ask, smiling mischievously.

'I don't know, why?'

'What do you say to playing a little prank?' She smiles back and nods. We walk over.

"For the last time, rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper and paper beats rock." Sarah says to Ares. I'm surprissed when I hear this, How could Ares not know what rock, paper, scissors is?

'Ok, rock beats paper-'

"UGH!." Sarah moans, throwing her arms in the air in defeat. "Right I've given up. Oh, hey Dauntless. Who's this?"

'Hey. This is my friend.'

"Aren't you gonna introduce him?"

'Right yes, sorry. He's… uuhhhhh.'

"You've forgotten his name?"

'I've known him for about five minutes, okay. Bob! That's his name, bob.'

"Right then. Bob, I'm Sarah and this is Ares."

'Hey,' He says. I wave to him, trying to keep a straight face. 'Do I know you?' He then asks. I'm now struggling not to laugh my head off, it starts to show a little.

'Probably not, I doubt you met him before, he's relatively new.' Dauntless replies, saving the day by taking the attention off me long enough to regain my composure.

'Ok. You just seem really familiar.' At this, I start giggling uncontrollably.

"What's so funny?" Sarah asks. Now dauntless starts to laugh too.

'What?' Ares asks, getting a little irritated.

'It's just- Its' that he is really familiar.' Dauntless says.

'"Who is he?!" They both ask in unison. After a moment, DAuntless manages to gain some amount of composure.

'This should jog your memories.' She comes towards me, on the floor, wheezing, out of breath out if laughter. I have absolutely no idea why I find this funny. I manage to turn my laughing into a snigger. She helps me up before giving me a big, long kiss. Which I gladly return.

'Whoa, shit!' Ares shouts, surprised.

"Wait," Sarah then says. "James?"

'EEEYYYYYY!' I shout, triumphantly throwing my arms into the air. She laughs joyfully as she wraps her arms around me. This earns a glare from Dauntless.

"Sorry," She says, removing her arms from my waist. Ares then comes over, patting me on the back with the force of a pneumatic drill. THis makes me cough suddenly.

'Hey Ares, could you hand me my lungs back, think they fell out.' Laughing, he suddenly envelops me in the hardest bearhug I've ever received. This time, I actually think my lungs have fallen out. 'Too tight, to tight.' I squeal. He lets me go and I gulp up air. 'Jez, could you have squeezed me an harder?'

'Believe it or not, yes,' He replies.

'Please don't.' I back away slightly, afraid for my respiratory system.

'It's good to have you back.'

'I'm glad to be back.' With that, I tell them the gist of what happened in there, leaving out the fact that I killed Dauntless, unsure of how they'd react.

The next few days go by fairly nicely. Apart from the fact of me committing what is technically cannibalism, at least in my eyes. I manage to teach Ares how to play rock paper scissors too. I take a different approach to Sarah, actually playing the game and beating him in it. It was unfair, but it got him committed. One day, I'm playing it with him, trying to settle a dispute over who will get the last steak. Sarah had gone and gotten some a little while ago. Sarah walks up to us mid battle.

"Hey," she calls to us. "what you doin'?"

'I have managed to teach Ares how to play rock paper scissors and we both want the last steak.' I say to her.

"Really? Show me."

'Hey Ares, what do ya think about annoying Sarah a little bit?' I privately think to him.

'How so?' he asks, mischief in his voice.

'How about you pretend that you don't know how, just to see what happens.' I laugh evilly to myself when I mention this to him.

'I like your train of thought,' he replies. 'Okay, here we go.' he was, out into a balled hand into his other palm.

"Oh, you want to play, ok," Sarah then says. She then copies Ares.

"Rock, paper, scissors." They both say in unison. Sarah holds out her hand flat, Ares does the opposite.

"Yes, I win," Sarah celebrates to herself.

'No, hang on there for a second. Rock beats paper, not the other way around,' Ares then says.

"UGH! I'm not even going to try." She dramatically throws her arms in the air before walking away.

'Well, that was disappointing,' I say to Ares.

'You're not wrong there. Come on, let's finish what we started,' he agrees, again, putting his fist into his palm.

'Oh, right, the steak.' I had forgotten about that. I copy him, and with saying the words, I pull rock and he pulls scissors.

'Aww,' he says disappointedly. 'Oh well, there's always the next time. See ya,' He says, turning and walking away.

'That there is.' I take the steak out of the little portable meat storage unit that keeps it warm and fresh, complete with its own month long power supply, and go to eat it. Just before I take a bite, I get a thought.

'Hey, Ares,' I say, after catching up to him.

'Hmm?' he asks.

'Here.' I take the steak and split it in half, handing out of the two pieces to Ares.

'Are you sure? It's your food, after all.'

'yeah, it's good. Just enjoy that piece for me,' I say, with a smile.

'Well, there's no need to tell me twice,' he replies, returning the smile.

'See ya.' I give him a quick wave, which he returns with a thumbs up. I decide to find Dauntless. Earlier today, she said that she would probably be around our resting place if I wanted her. It wouldn't be hard to find, given the fact we spend so much time there. I get there fairly quickly but don't see her around. I'm a little bummed by this since i was thinking of sharing the steak with her, I venture a little farther than where we slept. After looking around for a little bit, I give up. The meat was starting to lose to the heat and even though I'd still eat it, I prefer it warm. I take a bite out of it as I sit down on our little bed. All it was, was a few layers of softer, warmer resin on the floor but I don't mind. At this moment, a pair of arms leisurely wrap themselves around my chest. I lean back into the owners' chest.

'Hey,' I say to her, snuggling my head against her arm.

'Hi. What ya got there.'

'The last steak from the ones Sarah bought. I had to beat Ares in rock, paper, scissors to get it. You want some?'

'Yes please.' I slice it in two and hand it to her. She thanks me before quickly eating it.

There's a short silence before she asks, 'How are you?' Ever since the realisation of the death toll I left behind when escaping the facility set in, I haven't been the same. I realised something. All that time, I wasn't in control. Looking back, I can remember going out of my way to kill, and when I had the chance, pull out it a kill for as long as possible. I took a sick enjoyment out of it that nearly made me throw up every time i thought about it. During that time, the sick disease that was dwelling in my head thrived. Catos' spawn. It took over and, not even forced me, to kill them all. At that moment, I had two things on my mind; escape and… kill. Kill as much and as painfully as possible make them suffer, even those who I had no quarrel with. All that mattered was the hunt and kill. And it still affects me. I had gone out hunting with Dauntless to only find that I, not even realising what I was doing, ate the poor deer alive. It was at that moment that I made the connection. But, as everyone said, at least, those who were friendly with me, that it wasn't me, it was whatever that sick monster did to me. And while that was true, it also wasn't. I know, deep down, all he did was refine all the bad aspects of humanity, concentrate them, and shove them in my head. And it didn't help that people would look at me and smirk and laugh, when I broke down. A lot of the others in the hive, if not most of them, hated the fact that I could go and live a normal life if I choose. That I could go and see my family again. But I couldn't. I was so similar, but so different at the same time that society would cast me out, call me a freak of nature.

The worst part is that, all of this, and what I did to Dauntless, as well as other things, would stick itself to my mind and soul so tight that it will take a very. Very long time to root it all out.

'James?' Dauntless calls to me, I hadn't realised that I spaced out until I hear her calling my name, a worryingly common occurrence lately.

'Hmmm? Oh, sorry. I'm good, well, better.' We all knew it will take time to unravel the tainted strings looped tightly around my mind. So tightly, that they dug in and were healed over. Like that of a far too small collar on a mistreated dog. Most of us knew not to push it too much, those who didn't, were made well aware of it. And of the consequences. There was a long silence, followed by an equally long sigh from Dauntless. She knew I was thinking about it.

'I'm sorry,' I say. 'I didn't mean to ruin the mood.'

'It's okay,' She replies. After another moment, she says, trying to lift the mood, 'I'm glad you're here now.'

"Me too." I just unintentionally shut her down.

'Oh! I nearly forgot!' She says, after a few moments.

"What?"

'Wait here.' she heat up and hurriedly walks away, leaving me with my thoughts.

'You know you're never gonna be happy, right?'The sympathetic voice in my head says.

'I Have two words for you: Fuck. Off.' I mumble to myself. I know what he's trying to do.

'everything you loved is gone. They'll go too.'

'No. They're my family. They won't.'

'They were too. Think of everything we've lost. It won't stop. It'll never stop.'

'What do you know?'

'I know that everything we hold dear, leaves. Your mum, dad, brothers and sister. You'll never be able to see them again.'

'No. They won't leave me. Never. Why are you even doing this?'

'Because everything with any kind of meaning to you has thrown you to the wolves. And this time, it won't be any different. Life's a bitch. It's time that you accept it.'The sympathy in my voice is now replaced with a bitter harshness. I shake my head, refusing to believe it.

Suddenly, images of everyone, everything, that I hold dear flash in front of my eyes. Friends, family, pets. Day long memories play out in split seconds. 'No. Nonononono. Stop,' I beg. It doesn't. 'PLEASE STOP!' I scream. Thankfully, it did.

'It's only a matter of time. Don't blame me when it happens,'I whisper. I'm left in tears, metaphorically speaking, curled up in a tight ball. I hear Dauntless hurtle around a corner.

'James? James, what's wrong?' She asks. I don't reply, just tighten the ball. 'James,' She then says, comfortingly while stroking my back. 'Whats wrong?' I let my tail loosen from around my legs and fall to the floor. I lean into her embrace. 'Ssshhhh, it's okay. I'm here.' at her words, I fling my arms around her, knocking her off balance for a moment. Still, she holds onto me tight.

'I miss them so much,' I weep into her arm. If I could shed tears, there'd be an inch deep layer of them covering the floor. She stays on shushing me, never ceasing the back rubbing. 'Friends, f-family. My pets, even. They all left me eventually. And when I saw Eoin, I thought it helped. But, it hadn't. A-all it did was remind me that I'll never be able to go back.' my voice breaks at the end, something I didn't even realise could happen over telepathy.

'It's okay. I'm here.' Her soothing, loving voice soon calms me down to a sniffling whimper.

'Please don't leave me.' Out of everything I have. She is the one thing I hold most dear.

'Not in a million years.'

'We all will never, ever leave you, my child.' With that, I take in a big, deep breath. Reaching as far into my lungs as possible. And let my woes flow out with it.

'So, you want to see what I left to get you now?' Dauntless asks, smiling at me.

'Yes please,' I reply, nodding. With her tail, Dauntless gently pushes the all too familiar Xenomorph plush towards me. My face lights up when I see it. 'Where did you find it?' I ask, picking it up.

'Apparently Clara found it and gave it to Sarah to give to me to give to you.'

'Thank you.' I let out a satisfied sigh. It's a little dirty but nothing a little wash won't fix.

'Now. I know what'll really cheer you up.'

'What?' Dauntless leans in close to my face, pulling me in with her hands. She plants a tender kiss on my lips. While doing this, she pulls me in even more by the arms. And then straddles my legs. Is she going where I think she's going? She pulls away. 'Tag. You're it.' By the time I realised what had happened, she was off like a bullet fired from a gun.

'Oh, hell no,' I shout after her as I begin to chase her down the halls. I'm starting to gain on her when she rolls to the side. Before I had the time to react, I barreled into Aran.

'Woah, late for a date or something,' He asks.

''No, just chasing after Dauntless,' I reply.

'Why?'

'Well… I could show you.'

'What?' I put my hand on his shoulder.

'Tag, you're it.' I bolt. Aran seems to realise what's going on a little faster than me and is right on my heels. I round a corner and nearly crash into Ares. Luckily, he dodges just in time.

'Where the hell are you going?' He asks.

'Sorry, can't stop and explain.' As I say this, I hear a yelp and a thud.

'Oh, no you don't,' could then be heard from Ares. And so, it slowly turns into a frenzy of Xenomorphs' chasing one another for a while. It then quiets down after a bit. I sluggishly make my way over to my bed and thump down into it. Dauntless then lays down behind me a few moments later. Both our chests are heaving heavily in and out. She reaches over to me and puts her hand onto my chest.

'Tag.' It this, I let out a big happy sigh.

'God, I've missed this.' I lie down and snuggle up to Dauntless as best as I can. The fact that I was now a Xenomorph meant that it'd be too awkward for Dauntless to lie down behind me, so we compromise and snuggle up as close as we can to each other, hands in each others.

Boy, that took something to write. Sorry if it's a little short, as I said before, I'm writing on my phone and it's hard for me to judge how long the chapters are.

I wanted to say thanks. Thanks to everyone who is reading this now or in the future. Without your support, I would never have the push to create these. And on that note, I hope you enjoyed. Bye, for now.


	44. chapter 44 Terror

I wanted to thank the person who sent me the review a few days ago, you know who you are. It really lifted my spirits. Thank you. Anyways, I hope you enjoy. James out.

That night, my sleep is haunted by gruesome sights of death. Most of it was by my hand too. There's nothing I can do as I stand, frozen to this place, as I'm forced to watch myself murder everyone I ever knew over and over again. It would start with me just standing there, frozen as usual, and then I'd blink and there'd be blood everywhere. I then look down and see me, covered in blood as I dissect my mum, dad, dear friends alive, right in front of my eyes. I'd scream, cry, try to reach out, all ending with the same result. Nothing, didn't move an inch. One time, it is different. Instead of being in the kitchen, I start in the living room of an unfamiliar house. I realise that I'm free to move and walk to the hall. The lights aren't on. I look right to see a door down the hall. I enter. It seems to be the master bedroom. I walk into the en suite. Again empty. I hear a crash coming from outside the room and then a hiss. Dauntless' hiss. I race into the room to find everything sizzling.

'Oh god. Dauntless,' I cry as I race to her side. And them I'm back there. The same spot in the kitchen as always. Except, this time, Dauntless is trying to reach out to me. Calling my name. To her, it must look like I don't care. The next thing, I'm walking over to her. I forcefully grab her wrists and push her onto her back. I pick up a staple gun that wasn't there before and shoot one. Two. Three. Four staples into each of her limbs before I stop. I feel my face with no emotion as I grab a knife and cut into her. I saw her ribs and rip them out with a crazy smile.

And then I'm back. Back into the real world where I didn't just kill my love. I'm suddenly filled with a burning fear which spreads all over my body on an instant. My chest seizes up and my limbs turn to stone. It wasn't a fear of anyone else. Not of Cato, not of Wey Yu. It is a fear of myself. I don't even register that Dauntless is at my side until she gives my a light slap across my face, snapping me out of my trance. I look at her, just only seeing the faint, barely visible, human skull under her carapace. I also just notice the 'thirteen' that was branded into it too, it being even less visible. The memories come back; I remember the blood, the gore as she screams and pleads for me to stop. I bolt. In minutes, I'm at the entrance to the hive.

'Hey, hey, slow down!' One of the sentries calls to me. I barrel through them. I'm running faster than ever and soon my body burns all over. I didn't even know I could push my body so hard. I collapse against a tree and curl up into a ball. The tree was cold, it confuses me. Nothing ever felt cold when I am a Xeno. I look down at my shaking hands to find that they're made of flesh and skin. Not the usual Teflon-like material they were earlier. I put my arms on my knees and bury my head into the space between them with enough force that it should've ripped of. My chest siezes up again and I find it incredibly hard to breathe. After a few minutes, I hear a twig snap and I move my now incredibly stiff neck up. Dauntless is there, clearly in pain from running so hard. Ares and one of the sentries are there too. I let my head slump back down as the images of Ares pop into my head. I'm terrified. Terrified of what I might do. Of the thing inside my head. Dauntless kneels down beside me and I flinch when she goes to put her hand on my shoulder. She pulls it back towards her.

'Hey,' She says to me. I curl up tighter again as her screams echo around my head. I'm surprised that I haven't burst into tears yet. I want to, I should, this is enough to send me over the edge. Something was holding me back. bHim./b

"Leave," I say to them with a shaky, scared, raspy voice. My breath still hasn't returned to me. "please, just leave." Dauntless was dumbstruck, she doesn't know what to do, I could tell. A little while later, Sarah arrives. She immediately rushes over to me. I curl up tighter. My breath had returned a few seconds earlier, just for my lungs to go on lockdown once again. It doesn't help when she starts talking.

"Hey James. You okay?" I try to open my mouth to find that I've lost the ability to. I end up shaking my head very slightly. I feel the amusement of bhim/b leaking into my thoughts. At that moment, some of the fear is replaced by anger towards it. "Well, what's wrong?" I try to speak again to find the same result. My throat then gets incredibly dry and I get up to go to the nearby stream. I sit down at the edge and dip my cupped hand into the water. I take many gulps of the cool, calming liquid. I hear Sarah approaching from behind me. She sits down beside me.

"Where are the others?"

"I sent them back. Figured that having as many people around you didn't help."

"Well, you weren't wrong."

"Do you want to tell me what's wrong or would you prefer to be left alone?" She gently rubs my shoulder. I stiffen at her touch but not as much as the last time. There's a long pause before I speak up.

"I'm terrified. Sarah."

"Of Cato?"

"No. Not of him, but of something he did. Something he created."

"What?" I'm nervous to tell her the full story of what I, bhe/b did.

"I uh… I didn't tell you everything. Of what happened back there."

"What is it?"

"I did something terrible when I was there. To Dauntless." She edges a bit closer. "There was a point, when I was there, that Cato invited my mum in. Then he lied to her in front of me. He told her that I kidnapped her son and killed him. After that, there's a gap in my memory. All I can remember is that I was awake." I pause for a moment to let her take it all in. "Cato put something in my head. It's twisted and cruel. It pushes be into the back of my own mind, forced me to take a front row seat as he killed six people for pleasure. And then killed a few more after as part of an initiation."

"Is that why you're afraid?"

"No… before I continue, you need to promise me not to do anything until I finish. Okay?" She nods. "thank you. Anyways, after that, they put me against Dauntless. It had a great hatred towards her. It made her suffer, and made me watch, as it slowly choked her to death. That thing, that parasite in my head, is me. It has all my memories, it acts like me before all this happened. Yesterday, I'm not sure if you heard about it, but it has the ability to manipulate my thoughts, make me remember certain things. It pushed everything I lost, and all the pain and anger and sadness associated with them, to the front of my mind. And a little while ago, it made me dream about murdering everything important to me that I have left. I dreamt of pinning Dauntless to the floor with a nail gun and ripping out her ribs, one by one. And it terrified me. It wants out; of its' cage, of the hive. It wants a normal life. And I'm terrified at what it might do if it gains control again." Sarah is silent for a moment, taking it all in. I can't imagine the shock she felt when I told her about killing Dauntless. Her child.

"Oh." For a long while, that's all she says. "Well, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I just… don't know. I doubt it's gonna give up any time soon and I don't know if I'll be strong enough to hold it back if it tries to force its' way in."

"What about you here now. You must have found a way back or else you wouldn't be here."

"I surprised it. While my body, and his mind, were sleeping, I did the equivalent of hitting him on the head with a frying pan just as he opens his eyes. And then I revived Dauntless with a HV wall socket." There's another silence.

"Whatever you choose to do, we'll back you. No matter what."

"I doubt that now that I'm gonna have to explain all this to them," I hurt.

"Hey!" Sarah grabs my this and pulls my face away from the small fish in the water to look into her eyes. "I'm your friend, Ares and Aran are your brothers, The queen is your mother, well, stepmother, and Dauntless is your girlfriend. Dauntless cares for you so much, we all do. And, although, there are some who'll want you gone, I know for a fact that some will fight for you to stay. Me included." I smile at this.

"Thanks."

"you feeling better now?" She's now looking at the stream with me. I nod. "Good. Now, let's get back home."

"I think I might stay out here for a while. Clear my head."

"Of course. Do you want me to stay or…"

"Nah, you can head back." She nods and turns to leave. After taking a few steps, she turns back and walks over to me.

"This is from Dauntless, by the way." She leans down and plants a tender, loving kiss on my lips. She pulls away, blushing slightly.

"You wouldn't give her one back for me would ya?" She nods before leaving, doing a mock salute as the walks away. I sit there for another while before letting out a sigh and dip my hands into the stream. After I find a few decently what rocks, I approach a nearby tree. With a sigh, I take a few steps back and get as far up it as I can before I dig the rocks into the bark. I make my way up to the first branch and then abandon them. I continue up the tree for a while until I reach a nook in between two branches. I get comfortable and look out to the forest continuing down the hill before me and to the colonies after. With the cool breeze on my face, it doesn't take me long to fall asleep.


	45. chapter 45 First impressions

Suggestive content near the end. You have been warned!

I wake up later to find a black ball lying a few feet above me, on another branch. I climb up to her. She wakes as I do.

"Hey," I say to her. She sits up.

'I thought you'd be lonely so I came out to you.'

"Thanks. I'm sorry for yesterday."

'It's fine, Sarah explained it to me.'

"It's just." I sigh. "I'm scared of what will happen, ya know." She nods.

'Come here.' She hold her arms out to me and I quickly take them. We sit there for a while, holding each other. I plant a kiss on her head.

"Thanks."

'You gonna come back inside?'

"Yeah. You can go ahead, I have to get down."

'Okay. See ya there.' Dauntless quickly jumps between the trees and it doesn't take long for me to lose sight of her. I'm quite far up the tree and it takes me a few minutes to make my way down. When I'm about halfway down, I notice a pile of clothes where I was sleeping. How I didn't notice them when I first woke, is beyond me. I grumble as I make my way back up. After that, I return down the tree and make my way back home. It doesn't take me long and when I get there, I see Dauntless waiting for me at the entrance.

'Well, someone took their time,' She says to me when I approach.

"Some of us lack the ability to jump from tree to tree. And, I didn't notice the pile of clothes and had to go back up. Coulda told me they were there."

'Oops?' she replies mischievously. 'Shall we?'

"Ladies first."

'Ooh, very gentleman like,' She says to me as I step aside.

"I aim to please." I step aside and take her hand as we walk in. I get glares from everyone we pass. It seems that the info about what happened had gotten out. I see Sarah up ahead. I look to Dauntless.

"Hey, I'm gonna be back in a minute, I gotta ask Sarah something. She nods and I make my way over to her. She sees me.

"Hey, thanks for telling everyone about our conversation earlier," I tell at her, severely pissed."

"James, I swear to God, I can explain."

"What's there to explain?"

"It wasn't me. Apparently the sentry that followed you out earlier hadn't gone back and decided to eavesdrop on us. Why would I do that?" I immediately start to feel guilty.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realise," I apologize with a sigh.

"It's alright, no hard feelings. How are you feeling?"

"Quite good. Thanks for the clothes too."

"Clothes? What clothes?" I give her a look that says 'seriously?' before stepping back a small bit, showing off the clothes that are clearly on my body. "Oh yeah. Well, I feel dumb now."

"Yeah? Welcome to my world." She chuckles. "Right. I'm gonna go and find Dauntless again. See you later alligator."

"In a while, crocodile." I smile when I hear her reply as I walk away. It doesn't take me long to find Dauntless and I spend the day with her. Near dusk, I realise that I can't stop thinking about the thing inside my head. It worries me.

'You know, there's something that we could do to take your mind off your worries,' Dauntless says, catching on to my thoughts. I'm leaning against her chest with her hands playing with my hair, which has seemingly grown to a comfortable size and stopped. It tickles but I pay no attention to it.

"What do you mean?"

'The queen is the only one who can produce eggs. But…'

"But what?" She leans in close, as if to whisper, not that distance makes a difference through the hive mind.

'We can still pleasure each other.' with the whisper in my head, I feel her inner jaw sensually nipping at my neck. If my eyes could get any wider, they would've. And a huge lump forms in my throat, which also goes dry. I'm about to say something a when I'm suddenlh around and Dauntless has her lips on mine. I feel something slightly warm and tube-like enter my mouth; her tongue. By this point, my brain has melted and I have no idea what to do. A few moments later she pulls away.

'How'd that do?' she asks.

"Well, I'm not thinking about the thing anymore." I smile. Then, in the corner of my eye, I notice people walking past. Dauntless has her lips against mine again, now straddling my waist. I push her away slightly. "Dauntless, no, there's people here." Smiling seductively, she uses her tail to pull me in closer, resting the flat of the blade of the back of my head. She kisses me again.

'I don't care,' At that moment, a voice calls out from behind us.

'Hey lovebirds.' At Area's call, I use the distraction to push Dauntless away, and much to my relief, she doesn't pull me back in.

'Yes?' Asks a now annoyed Dauntless.

'The queen wants to speak with James.'

"Sure." I get up and practically pry Dauntless off me. I then follow Ares. "Any idea why she wants me?"

'Which, Mother or Dauntless,' Ares grins. I punch him on the arm.

"Shut up. You know what I mean."

'Well, you and Dauntless have been in a relationship for a while now.'

"Oh God why," I mumble to myself, my face in my hands as I try to conceal the blushing. Ares laughs.

'In all seriousness, I have no clue why Mother wants to speak with you.'

"I wonder what this is about then."

'Yeah, you're not the only one. I was this close to getting into bed with one of the chicks that hang around near the egg chambers. It seems that you're not the only one on the prowl.' He jokes, nudging me. I groan in frustration.

"Were you actually or did you just say that to get at me?"

'I wasn't, I was just enjoying a deer I had caught.' I look at him with a face of confusion and disgust. 'Not like that.'

"Yeah, sure. That's gonna be your new nickname for now on. Ares, Deer banger."

'Don't. You. Dare,' He growls.

"It's not my fault you poked the bear." I smile at him, which is returned with a mopey angered look. Being quite amused with myself, I walk on to Mothers' chamber. It doesn't take me long to get there.

"Morning Mother," I call to her.

'You're only just up?'

"Not really, just trying to be polite."

'I appreciate it, my child. But, why are you blocking me out?'

"What do you mean?" Immediately after I ask that, I realise what's happening.

'Fucker,' I think to myself. A feeling of smug amusement comes fromit.

'This isn't funny, Child.' This makes me stop. Mother clearly isn't happy. Something I've never seen before. Trying to figure out the words to explain my situation, I end up sighing.

"This isn't going to be easy to explain." I sigh again. I can't find the right words. "Do you mind if you call for Dauntless? I can't find the words to explain." She nods and after a few milliseconds, it hits me; what's Dauntless going to be like from earlier? A lump forms in my throat. It seems that Mother hasn't caught on to my sudden nervousness, or at least hasn't said anything about it. A few minutes later, Dauntless walks in and sits beside me.

'You called?' She then asks.

'Firstly, can you tell me why James is so nervous?'

"Oh no," I moan, head in my hands. I look to see her pondering, probably to find the most embarrassing g answer, considering her especially… quirky mood lately.

'Oh, just relationship things.' I give a relieved sigh at her answer. 'Why?'

'fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck,' screams my mind.

'Just, as soon as he mentioned your name, he got quite nervous.'

'You can't stop thinking about it, can you?' Again, I moan into my hands. Dauntless pulls me into a tight-ish hug. 'Dont worry. I'll solve all your fears later.' She plants a long, purring kiss on my cheek.

'Oh god, why?' I think to myself.

'As amusing as this is, we have much more pressing matters. Now, Dauntless, would you care to explain why James has been blocking me out?' Dauntless then looks at me, confused.

"It's to do with… it." She nods.

'There's this… thing, in james' mind,' Dauntless explains to Mother. 'When he was in Catos' possession, he did something to him. And then this… manifestation of, what I assume is, every bit of james' mind that still wants to go home. It's not very friendly.' In my life, I have never seen a mood change so quickly. The expression 'the tension is so strong, you could cut it with a knife' is a bit of an understanding. I look up at Mother, she seems to be contemplating things.

'Come here, my child.' She motions for me to come to her. I oblige, feelingitstrongly disagreeing with my actions. As I near, she holds out her hand for my. I take it.

"what are you gonna do?" I ask her.

'I intend to have a little… chat with this other mind. And try to break through whatever barriers he has put in place. With you being this close, he can't do anything to stop me.'

"Well. I'm gonna make myself comfortable. Who knows how long this will take."

"Be warned, it may hurt." I feel her mind enter mine, making its' way to the place where this thing resides.

All of a sudden, it's like someone, guess who, flipped a switch in my mind and now it feels like I'm in a VR headset, taking the backseat of my own mind. I watch as I flip out of Mothers' arms and, the next thing I know, her legs are broken and I'm pummeling Dauntless' face into the wall.

"I. HATE. YOU. YOU ARE THE REASON I CAN'T EVER SEE MY FAMILY AGAIN!"I roar into her face. I can feel her shock and sadness in my mind. It sickens me that I'm enjoying it. I throw her across the room and look up at Mother. It seems thatitdid something to knock her out, judging by the way she's slumped over. I look back to Dauntless, who is looking at me. Dumbstruck at the sudden turn of events. I start slowly approaching her, building speed as I go. By the time I've reach her, my lunch will most definitely break something inside her. When she's launched across the room, unconscious, I mentally scream.

'No. You're not in control,' I think toit.

'Oh, but I am. I am going to do what should've been done ages ago.'I know exactly what he meant. I scream again, louder this time. Everything goes black for a moment before I appear in a room. It's nicely decorated, like a very old fashioned,medieval room, with red lighting up everything. I seehim, looking at me from across the decently sized room. My mind filled with rage, I charge at him, covering the distance in record time. I grab him by the throat, hoisting him up and slamming him into the wall.

'Do you like the place? I made it myself,'He chuckles.

'Don't you dare laugh. You are NOT in control. Do you hear me?'

'That's strange because I remember being exactly that, a few moments ago.'

'Well, not any more. You are not going to continue on whatever mission you're hellbent completing.'

'All I want is to go home.'

'This is our home.'

'Our home, home. Back to our family.'

'You know that's not possible.'

'I'm not gonna stop trying.'

'What? What're you gonna do, torment mum some more? You know well what Cato did. And you know that everyone else isn't gonna believe you. He'll, I was amazed that mum did.'

'No! It is possible. They have to believe me.'

'They're not going to so you might as well shut the fuck up and go back into whatever little hole you came out of.'

'NO! YOU'RE WRONG! They have to.'I could clearly see he's lost faith in his goals. I let him back onto his feet. He sinks to the floor before letting his head drop down, baking off his knee. After a few moments, he breaks. Tears start flowing from his eyes as he sobs. I immediately feel bad. For a moment, I think it might be a trick, a way for him to get back in control. But this is something neither of us will ever be able to fake. Both of us felt the pain from all of our losses. I know exactly how he feels right now; broken, no will to do anything but cry, If he was in control, he wouldn't have the will to eat, drink, lose the ability to sleep, but chase it around for hours in the dark until he finally catches it. I was on the later stages of this when Dauntless found me. I kneel down, trying to look at his face. It's easy to take crying when you really need to. This is genuine. I pull him into a hug, stroking his hair, trying to sooth him in any way possible. I became especially good at this after my step dad left. After a little while, he puts his arms around me.

'It mightn't be the same family as before, and some of the people mightn't exactly like us, but we have a mother who loves us, a beautiful, amazing girlfriend, and tons of friends. We have security, love and joy all around us. So. What would you say if I mentioned trying to start over?'

'I would say that, out of everything you just said, I know that there's one thing I agree with you about more than the others.'

'And what is that?' He takes his head from between his legs and looks at me.

'Dauntless really is beautiful.'I chuckle at his remark. I stand and hold out my hand for him to take. He does. I pull him up before looking around, a new predicament now on my mind.'What?'

'How do you get out of here?'

'Ah. There's a door behind you now, use that.'I turn around to see a door on the wall that wasn't there before. This confuses me.

'This is all in our head, remember.'

'Oh, right, yeah. Well. Bye, I guess.' I approach the door.

'Keep in touch,'He jokes.

'You know where to find me. See ya.' At a glance back, I see that he does a mock salute before I walk through.

I wake up in a bed. An actual bed! I sit up, or at least try to but fail as a pain rams itself against my skull. I groan in pain.

'James?' I look over to see a worried Dauntless making her way towards me, with a limp. I'm immediately reminded of the… scuffle, that happened in mother's chamber. I realise that Dauntless is now beside me.

"Hey Dauntless." I try to sit up again to find myself being pushed down by Dauntless.

'Don't. You need rest.'

"Ah, I'm fine. I'm more worried about what I did to you.' Even though I wasn't in control, I remember everything that happened.

'I'm okay. Happy that now I know you're still alive.'

"Why what happened?"

'Well, after you punched me halfway across the chamber, you started strangling me. Then, you just collapsed and started convulsing for a while. After that, you stopped and I moved you here.'

"Right. Where are we?"

'This is where Sarah sleeps. She was kind enough to let you take her bed for the few days you were out.'

"Days?"

'Four. Sarah has been sleeping in another chamber nearby.'

"Right. How's Mother?"

'She's okay. Still recovering from the mental attack thatitunleashed on her for the moment that you two were connected but is mostly there.' There's bitterness in her voice when she mentions my split personality.

"Hey, don't call him 'it' anymore. I've managed to talk him around. For sure this time."

'How can you be sure?'

"Well, for one, he admitted that he finds you beautiful so that's a reason." I feel a pang of annoyance, then one of embarrassment, when I mention this.

'Oh really?' I nod.

"I think he really likes you. Besides, all that he wants us to go home and see our family again."

'Our?'

"We're the same person, just a bit different. He has all my memories and feelings, he's just the part of my brain that didn't want to let go."

'Im sorry about causing you all this hassle, it's my fault.'

"Hey, don't blame yourself. I'm happy."

'And I'm sorry about the way I acted before. It was inappropriate of me.'

"Yeah, what was that about anyway?"

'Well. I uhhh. I am In heat.' If she could, she'd probably turned as red as a tomato right now. I take an eyebrow at this.

"Oh? And you aren't now?"

'Well it's kind of hard to think sexual thoughts when the one you want to join with is laying in a bed and you don't know if they're gonna wake up or not.'

"Hmmm. True." I think back to the… incident. I hurt her. Badly. I want to repay her, but don't know how. Or at least, won't acknowledge how.

'Go on. Don't worry, I'll keep my eyes closed,'I joke to… me?

*Fucking hell, this is confusing me. Probably ye guys/girls too.*I still hesitate. But with myself egging me on, I make my decision.

"Dauntless?"

'Hmmm?' It seems that she's wandered into a corner, deep in thought.

"Come here please." She does. "I want to apologize for what I did. I know that I hurt you."

'James, you don't need to. It wasn't-'

"Which is why I want to do this," I interrupt. I cup her chin, taking a deep breath before pulling her into a long, sensual kiss. After, she pulls back.

'James, you don't need to.' I pull her close again before whispering;

"I want to…" With that, I pull her into another kiss, as well as onto the bed. After a moment, she accepts and joins in with the kissing.

All thoughts about this being Sarahs' bed went out the window.


	46. 46 Repairs

I wake up to see that Dauntless is still wrapped around me, sleeping contentedly from last nights'... Ventures. I admire her and trace her features with my hands, careful not to wake her. I can see them more clearly; the biomechanical patterns in her skin, the curves and points in her crest seem sharper, as well as other things.

"And here I was thinking you couldn't get any more beautiful," I whisper to myself. Carefully, I pull her arms from around me, and then her tail. I sit up, trying to contain the groan of pain as I do. She is on the outside of the bed, me being tucked against a wall, so I have to quietly climb over her. As my feet touch the ground, it feels as if every bone in my pelvic region pops.

'The hell did we do last night?' I think to myself. I try to remember what happened but all I can call up is flashes and a feeling of ecstasy. I huff to myself as I roll my shoulders, them popping too. I then take a long sigh, or at least try to. It seems I took quite the beating.

'I'm gonna have to get Sarah to check me over. And then get her to tell me where she keeps the spare sheets,' I feel a warm breath puff against the back of my neck before arms wrap around me.

'Hey,' Dauntless greets.

"Morning."

'I had fun last night.'

"I did too."

"How are you? Sometimes we can go a bit overboard, especially when it's our first time." At this, she gives me a squeeze. Bad idea.

"Painful," I wheeze and she lets me go.

'Sorry.'

"It's okay." She gently pulls me back down to the bed, arms and tail re-wrapping around me.

'You know what this means?'

"No."

'We are bonded. Fully. This makes us life mates.'

"I thought we already were.'

'Technically, no. But I always felt like we were.'

"Well, even if I did know this. I would've felt the same." I give her a long kiss on her arm, which is now comfortably draped over my stomach. She squeezes me again. "Chest," I wheeze, again.

'Sorry. You're just so squeezable,' She giggles. I turn around and give her another long, loving kiss, only, on the lips this time.

"Ah, it's okay. Right, I'm gonna have Sarah have a check over me to assess the damage." She unwraps herself from me so I can get up and redress. It doesn't help that it hurts every time I move. "Do you know where she might be?"

'If you take two lefts and a right, you'll come to where she's staying.' I thank her and head for the door. An image pops into my head, it's of me, through another pair of eyes. They're over me with black, clawed arms on my chest. Dauntless. In the image, she's riding me. My co-

*And that's the end of that. For now(wink wink)*

I stop before turning to face her.

"Was that you?"

'Who else would it be?'

"I dunno, there's still a lot I don't know about Xenos."

'Well, no one else has bonded with you.'

"Yeah, I suppose. Why'd you send me that anyway. And how is it so clear, it's never been like that before."

'I thought it would be a nice way to show you another perk of being bonded with another. The link between the couple is very, very strong.'

"Hmmm."

'Did you not like it?'

"No. Just kind of strange. Now, if you excuse me, I'm gonna get a damage assessment." With a slight limp, I walk down the halls, following Dauntless' instructions. Surprisingly, no one is here. It doesn't take me long to find the bed she's been sleeping in. It's the same as mine and Dauntless'. She's not there. Thankfully, I spot Aran coming around the corner.

"Hey, Aran," I call to him. He spots me and walks over.

'Hey, you're awake and walking. How are you?'

"In pain but mostly fine. Have you seen Sarah? I want her to have a look over me."

'Uuuhhh, last I saw, she was hanging out with Ares. That was a few minutes ago so they should still be there.'

"Cool, where was that?"

'Just down the corridor I came from.'

"Awesome, thanks. I'm gonna go see her and then we'll hang out, sound good?"

'Coolio.' I turn to leave. 'Hey, wait.'

"What?"

'I think Sarah has a thing for Ares.'

"Oh really?"

'Mmh hmmm. And I think it's both ways.' I nod, smiling deviously.

'That might come in handy later,' I think to myself. I say bye and turn to leave.

'Oh, one more thing.'

"Hmm?"

'Why are you in pain?'

"That, my friend, is for me to know."

'And for me to find out?'

"No. Now, I'm going to go find Sarah now."

'Alright then. See ya.'

"Bye." I turn and go down the corridor Aran came from. It doesn't take me long to find both Sarah and Area laughing and chatting away.

"James, you're awake!" Sarah calls after seeing me approach.

"I sure am. Alive and kicking." I notice Ares, glaring at me. "You alright mate?" Next thing I know, he's grabbing me by the shoulders and is shoving me into the wall. Making me groan in pain.

"Ares!" Sarah shouts, alarmed by what's just happened.

"Hey, what the fuck?" He growls at me, a deep, anger filled growl. It terrifies me. He leans in, getting very close to my face.

'Which… one, am I talking to?'

"The one who's shitting his pants." I'm very close to that statement being true.

'Not making it any clearer.'

"The original."

'How can I be sure?'

"Ares, put him down!" Demands Sarah, now furious. I ponder for a moment before an idea pops Into my head, thought up by my split. I smirk evilly, failing to hide my amusement at my plan.

'What's so funny?' My smirking annoys him, making him push slightly harder, earning a wince from me. Still, I can't stop smiling. In fact, I'm close to an evil laugh!

'Tell me!' I lean forward, struggling to contain my intense amusement.

"This…" I whisper to him, before kissing him on the lips. It was quick, but had the desired effect. He recoils in shock, and annoyance.

'Ach!' He shouts, wiping his mouth, making me roar with laughter.

"Ya think the other me would dare do that?" I ask, after regaining my composure. It takes a while.

'That was disgusting, what the hell.' this sends me into a giggling fit.

"I'm sorry, he suggested it and I couldn't resist. Your reaction was priceless!"

'He?'

"My split personality."

'HE THOUGHT OF IT?! I thought you said that he wouldn't try it?!'

"He didn't. I did. And it was glorious." I look up to see two very not amused faces looking down at me. Me, still on the floor after falling over from laughter.

"Oh come on Sarah, you had to find that funny."

"No. I didn't."

"Hmm. Then, maybe what Aran told was true."

'WHAT DID HE TELL YOU?!' They both say in unison.

"That you like each other."

"The fecker said that he wouldn't tell anyone about that."

'What else did he tell you?'

"Nothing. There's more?" Now, I am sitting crossed legged.

"NOTHING!" A now flustered, blushing Sarah blurts out, then covers her mouth, knowing she's messed up.

"You two kissed, didn't ya?" Ares just shrugs before nodding.

"Ares! I told you to keep it secret!"

'Meh, he already knows that we like eachother. No point in holding back what he'll eventually find out.' He turns to me. 'Besides. You won't tell anyone. Will you.' his voice was very stern by the end, implying the consequences if I do.

"Don't worry, your secrets safe with me." They both let out a sigh of relief. "But I'm sure Dauntless will loooove to know." At this, they both look to each other before shrugging.

"Meh, she won't tattle on her half mum." I chuckle at this. "They'll be serious feckin' consequences of she does."

"Anyways, now that that's out of the way, Sarah. I think I may have damaged myself. Quite a bit. And since you're a doctor, I was wondering if you'd have a look over me."

"Sure." She motions for me to follow, which I do. Just before I turn a corner, Ares calls to me. I stop, replying with a 'hmm?'.

'Sorry for hurting you.'

"It's fine. I'll take it as payment for me not telling anyone that YOU TWO are in a relationship."

'Thanks.'

"No problem. Besides, it'll be much more interesting now that I can say that Sarah has a crush on you." I say it loud enough for her to hear.

"James!" She barks.

"Alright alright, just making jokes."

"Well, come on!"

"I'm gonna use it as leverage." At this, she grabs me by the ear and pulls me along. "Ow!"

"You'll live." After a bit more ear tugging, Sarah sets me down in something that resembles a bench. And after a little I inspecting, I get results. "Three cracked ribs, one fractured, four bruised and somehow two cracked and bruised. What the hell did you do?" At the question, I panick.

b"I rolled off the bed onto Dauntless, who freaked out and launched me into a wall,"/b My split says, saving the day.

'Thanks,' I think to him.

b'No problem.'/b

"Damn. How hard did she push you?"

"Hard. Really hard."

'Repeatedly, over the space of four hours,' I think to myself.

"Wait here." With a sigh, Sarah leaves, coming back a few minutes later with something resembling vaseline.

"What's that?" I ask.

"Something to help with the healing. Shirt up."

"Ok, just don't get kinky on me now." At the joke, she looks at with a very not amused look. I pull up my shirt and she starts rubbing it into my chest. Surprisingly, the pressure doesn't hurt. In fact, my chest already feels better! After that, it feels as if someone's just given me localised anaesthetic to my chest. "Where the hell did you get that?"

"Somewhere. Now, just no more wall bashing for a few weeks and the cracks and fracture should go away. As for the bruising, that tends to linger for quite a while."

"Well, I'll deal with it."

"Ok. Now, shoo. There's important things I need to do."

"Alright, just don't go telling people about you and Ares, that's my job." I get up and head back the way we came, intent on finding Aran.

"Yeah yeah." I look back to see her hiding a smile.

"Oh, and Sarah?"

"Hmm?"

"Do not, tell Dauntless what I did to Ares."

"Don't worry. I'll use it as leverage." With a smirk, I leave.

After hanging out with Aran and Ares for a bit, I spend some time with Dauntless. I happen along Sarahs' room, with Sarah coming the opposite way, heading for her room. She notices us and smiles.

'Did you ever fix the bed after you left?' I immediately turn around. I completely forgot.

'I guess not.' I hear the door open. I'm about halfway to the next turn when I hear,

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY ROOM!" I gun it, with Dauntless right beside me. I look back to see Sarah chasing, slowly losing ground. After a lot of turns, we stop and take a breather. Sitting against a wall, I look to Dauntless, who is also trying to stifle a laugh. We fail.

'It seems that we're gonna have to avoid Sarah for a while.' At this, we laugh even more.

"God, I love you."

'And I, you.' She brings her hand up to wipe away a smudge of hive resin on my cheek. We ran through a corridor that was being repaired and I slipped and my face slid along the wall. With a smile, she leans forward, kissing me. I lean in too.

'You are the best thing that's ever happened to me,' I think to her, since we're still kissing. The kiss ends, me needing breath.

"Don't ever forget that." She leans against me, her head along my chest. I wrap my arms around her and soon, sleep takes us.

UGH! I'm sorry for how long this has taken to be put out. I've been a bit busy, but not enough to be an excuse. I just haven't bothered writing. But, anyways, here it is, the second last(hopefully) chapter of A Xenomorphs Tale. It has taken a very long while to get here and it's been a blast! So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you in the next one. See ya.


	47. Chapter 47 Newcomer

There's gonna be a lot happening in this story since I want to get it done and focus on other projects more. Enjoy!

I wake up later to find that I've been moved to mine and Dauntless' bed and find that she isn't here. Feeling hungry, I head to the outside the hive, taking the knife that snugly fits into the wall with 's Sarah' for when she travels between here and the colony. We did try to send someone with her but that didn't end well. Something about the guy being a pervert and staring at her butt the whole time. Long story short, he came home with more than a few cuts and bruises. So, we settled with a knife, since she wouldn't let anyone go with her after that. She told me that she didn't mind me using it for skinning as long as I told her first. And cleaning it afterwards.

"Would you mind telling Sarah that I'm taking this?" I ask one of the guards.

'Why not do it yourself?' He replies gruffly. It seems that he's not a fan of me, not that I blame him.

"I'm kinda afraid to be near her right now."

'Oh right, you fucked Dauntless so hard that you broke her bed.' He laughs at this, and so does his buddy.

"How do you know about that?"

'Well, Shaun here was walking past when Sarah went in her room. He heard her yell at you two and decided to have a peek. It was pretty clear what you two did, considering the mess you two made. It looked like a Jackson Pollock painting,' He replies, pointing to the person across from him

"Oh."

'Did you not notice the mess?' Thinking back, it was quite messy.

"Before I came here, I was a weird, disorganised, lazy teenager. There was shit everywhere in my room."

'Hmm. Yeah, I'll tell her. Be careful out there.'

"I didn't think you cared." I cross my arms and lean against the wall, interested in his answer.

'I don't. Just trying to keep Dauntless off my back. A human woman can be bad enough, I don't want to be on the receiving end of her grief.' can tell he isn't joking but I can't help but laugh a bit at this.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." With that, I leave, making my way deep into the surrounding forest. I don't know exactly what's in the forest, but from the scents in the air, I can tell that there are some delicious things in here. It takes me a long while to find something, and even then, it's just a small rabbit.

"The joys of hunting," I mumble to myself, not impressed with the amount of meat on my catch, or the length of time it took to actually catch it.

b'Better than nothing,'/b Comments my split.

"I guess, but why is there fuck all around here?" I mumble everything I say so that if someone was to actually walk past, they wouldn't hear me talking to myself, literally a madman.

b' Maybe you didn't go out far enough. I mean, it's a big forest. And maybe the animals know to stay away from the hive.'/b

"Maybe. I'll ask Dauntless when I get back." I then get up and wander until I find a stream. One of the best advantages of being part Xenomorph is that I always know my way home and so, don't have to keep track of where I'm going. It doesn't take me long to find a small stream where I clean the knife, as well as my hands and face, before heading back. I get back fairly quickly, seeing Dauntless at the entrance.

"Hey you," I call to her as I near.

'Hey,' She replies, pulling me close and playing with my hair.

"You on watch?"

'Yeah.' At that, she lets out a big huff. It's the one job she hates doing, sitting there and staring at the same chunk of forest for an hour. It was only an hour each shift, but a long, boring one. Something I shared her outlook on.

"Ya want me to stay here with you? Keep you company."

'You don't have to, I'll be fine. It's only an hour. Catch anything.'

"Not really. A small rabbit with not much meat on it." At this, I cough a little, it hurts my chest a little, which also feels a bit tight now...

'You didn't stay out?'

"It'll do for now. How about we go out later?"

'That sounds nice. Maybe we'll catch an Elk.'

"Maybe," I say with a small chuckle. I look over to see a not too pleased Sarah storming over. "Uh Oh."

'What?' Dauntless looks back. 'Oh.'

"Hey Sarah, how've you been?" I ask, slinking behind Dauntless slightly.

"'HEY SARAH' THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT DESTROYING MY ROOM?!" She shouts, turning quite a few passing heads

"Sorry."

"YOU BROKE THE BED! SNAPPED IT IN HALF!"

"We did?" Thinking back, I do have the faintest recollection of the sound of wood snapping, me suggesting to stop, and then passing out from exhaustion half an hour later.

"HOW DO YOU NOT REMEMBER?!"

"To be honest, I don't remember much about that night." I look over at Dauntless, who is trying to stifle a laugh, making me smile.

"THIS ISN'T FUNNY!"

"I'm sorry!" I can't stop smiling.

"UGH!" At this, she starts hitting me. With a yelp, I throw my arm up to block her attacks. Afterwards, she storms off and after a few moments of silence, I can hear the faint sound of crying. I look over to Dauntless, who shares my look of worry and guilt.

"I should probably go check on her," I say, heading off after her. After a few turns, I find her with her back against the wall, head in her hands, crying. I walk over to her, sliding down the wall beside her.

"You okay?" I have no idea what to do.

"Do I look like I'm okay?"

"No." There's a long silence. "I don't understand."

"Understand what?"

"Did Dauntless and I break something else too? Something important."

"N-No. It's just. That bed was an exact replica of my fathers'."

"Okay. I'm guessing you two were close." She nods, her head now out of her hands.

"My mum wasn't a very good one. She was a druggie and, whenever she wasn't high, not much, she'd hit me. She passed away when I was young and left my dad to take care of me on his own. He was amazing, he managed to balance an extremely stressful and tiring job with taking care of me. He was my idol." A sad smile creeps onto her lips when she says this. "You probably think that I'm weird or something after hearing that my idol was my dad."

"No." She looks at me, curiosity in her eyes. "I've learnt not to judge people in their decisions. No matter how strange they are." She smiles, happily this time, which I return.

"Anyways, He was always there for me. If for example, I got home one day, a bit down, he'd notice like that," She says, with a snap of her fingers. "And he always knew how to cheer me up. I was always incredibly close to him, more than anyone else."

"And, when Dauntless came into your life, you couldn't see him anymore?"

"Wouldn't have been able to see him anyways." I'm confused for a moment but it quickly dawns on me. Her breath is shaky now, no doubt she is thinking of old memories.

"You don't have to continue if you don't want to. I know how hard this is, to speak about people who are gone." I wrap my arm around her, pulling her close. Right now, I don't care what Dauntless will say, this is what I feel is best.

"No. I've been bottling this up for too long." I nod. "One night, twenty-seven years ago, I was in bed and my father had gone out with his friends. I had to convince him to go, even at the age I was then, he didn't like to leave me on my own. 'Someday, I'll be gone and I can relax then.' He'd say.." At that point, I didn't need to know the rest. She blames herself for whatever happened, even more than what would be normal. She's the one who convinced him to go. Still, I let her continue. I know firsthand how good it is to talk to someone. "I was about to go to sleep when I heard some noise downstairs, a lot of it. So, I went down and saw a trail of blood. I follow it to see my dad fumbling with bandages as if that'd stop three four inch deep stab wounds, one cutting through the pulmonary artery. I called the ambulance and held him as they got here. They got him to the hospital and got him mostly stable and I was allowed to see him. He needed a surgery to close up some internal wounds. He wasn't in any condition to go into surgery and, during the surgery, he flatlined. Two days later, he was buried and I was left to pay off everything. So, I had to get a job and I didn't even get a chance to properly mourn.

"Oh." I am dumbstruck. I have no idea what to say. I look to see tears gathering in her eyes and hug her close, making her release her twenty-seven-year-old tears. I shush her while gently rubbing her back. After a long while, she finally calms down.

"You better now?" She nods.

"Thanks. I'm sorry for freaking out about a bed."

"No, I'm sorry for breaking it. If I knew how much it meant to you I wouldn't have… uhh…"

"Done what you did?"

"Yeah," I say, my cheeks going a little red. "I'll help you fix it. As payment." At this, I cough again, harder and longer. It hurts more and feels tighter too, so much that I rub my chest in discomfort.

"You okay?" I nod.

"Yeah. Don't know what brought it on though. Or why so hard."

"Do you want me to have a look you over?"

"No, I'm okay for now. If it gets any worse then you can." Then, with a nod, she leaves and I turn around and notice Dauntless glaring at me. With a sigh, I go to her, anticipating what is to come. "Hey, you." For a moment she doesn't say anything, just glares.

'I saw you with Sarah.' At this, I let out a long, annoyed sigh.

"So?"

'You know how I feel about that.'

"And you know how I feel about the past. Specifically past people."

'I know, but did you have to hold her for as long?'

"Yes!" Dauntless sighs at this.

'It's just, you're mine. And I don't want anyone taking you from me.' At this, I feel a bit bad.

"And they won't." She keeps the same unhappy look. "Look at it this way; You're different from the rest of us, not in a bad way, but your thought process is different than ours. We rely more on each other."

'You really think I'm that different?' She's a little hurt by my comment.

"Yes. But it's such a small thing," I say reassuringly, pulling Dauntless' hands into mine. "You're beautiful, smart, funny, strong. And I love you. Nothing will ever change that. I'm as attached to you as you to me. It's just, There's a part of me that needs to help people when they're the way Sarah was. I'm sorry that I upset you, but I can't help the way I am." There's a silence.

'I'm sorry. It was rude of me to complain about that.'

"It's okay. Wanna go catch that Elk now?" At this, I cough even more. Again, it's harder, tighter and more painful. Naturally, I put my hand in front of my mouth, and when I pull it away, there are a few droplets of blood on it.

'Are you okay?'

""Yeah. Looks like the huntin's gonna have to wait, I promised Sarah that I'd have her look over me if it got any worse."

'Okay. Just try not to be too long.'

"No dilly-dallying, I promise." With that, I head off to find Sarah. After looking around for a bit, I find her with Ares.

b' Who could've guessed she'd be here?'/b Says my split, making me smile.

'Me,' I think to him. A feeling of amusement pangs in the back of my mind.

"Hey," Sarah says, after seeing me approach.

"Hey. Remember how I said that I'd come see you if it got worse?"

"your cough, yeah. It did, did it?" I nod.

"I coughed up blood not too long ago." She grimaces at this. I look over at Ares, who's just staring at me with a mixture of shock, horror and confusion.

"You alright?" He doesn't answer. "Shocked at my beauty, no doubt."

'This can't be right. Come here.' He takes one step towards me when I set off into another coughing fit. And, same as the others, it's harder, tighter and more painful. This time, so painful that I have to put my hands on my knees. After, I look to see a tiny pool of blood on the ground. I stand up straight and, just like that, something stops. Something you'd never notice until it does. I shoot a hand to my chest and feel… nothing.

"Come on, you need to sit down," Sarah says, who I didn't even notice had her hands around me, trying to guide me to the wall. I look at her.

"What does it feel like when your heart stops?" In that moment, I feel a thump in my chest and I feel relieved for a moment before I feel a steady Da-Dump, Da-Dump. The first thump wasn't my heart. The next moment, it dawns on me: there's a Xenomorph inside me. There's another thump, one so painful That I'm forced onto my hands and knees. Another and I scream out in agony, now on my back. Another and I black out.

How's that for an ending? Would you look at that? Nearly fifty chapters. And to think that I used to think that It wouldn't even be twenty! And that this is my longest chapter yet! So. What did you think? Was it good, bad or somewhere in between? After all, how can an author get better without feedback? And thank you, for reading, commenting and for everyone for being sound! I was going to go back and rewrite this but I've decided not to. A little way to show myself what not to do, in terms of writing. And so, For the last time, I hope you enjoyed! Bye.


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